With the endless cuts and devaluation of the so-called "Soft" subjects in the education system, I suppose that I should be happy. Surely, well-established companies like Up-Stage will benefit from the obvious taste for drama? Well...no basically. Once the subject starts to disappear from the psyche, it can remain elsewhere. Drama should, and does, seep through into every subject, every day. The life skills and confidence it brings are essential. I have never heard of a scientist that doesn't use creative thought processes when working, and yet, the powers that be seem to be oblivious to this fact. If I might also address the idea of "Soft subjects". The arts brings in Billions of pounds to this country. That is clearly not the only benefit, but if, like this government seems to think, that you can only judge value financially, then it still "wins". The other values, the ones that every child I have worked with seems to understand fundamentally, are there for all to see. The tourism, the mental health benefits, the everyday skills of teamwork....this is just the tip of the iceberg. So no, I do not want to see drama disappear from Schools. I see what we do at Up-Stage as something that enhances that. In the meantime of course, we might be providing the only regular drama that children get. If that is the case, then so be it. However, I think we should all be fighting this. I know of one local school that has removed drama from its timetable. I worked in one that has now removed it as a regularly timetabled subject. This is an attack on culture, and one on those, many of whom can ill afford to pay for drama privately. We are working on many ideas to help this situation, but please, protest, complain and write to people.