Today more than ever, children face increasing external pressures to ‘succeed’. Children are oversaturated with technology and overexposed on social media channels, and often find themselves struggling to cope with the weight of these pressures.
Learning through live interaction has never been more important to a child’s development, especially as their ability to communicate effectively is affected by increasing dependency on technology. It is crucial to provide children with a creative education, particularly at a time when creative arts funding, in the formal education sector, faces increasing cuts.
Our role is more important than ever in delivering a world-leading performing arts education to over 48,000 children worldwide across the Stagecoach network. We give children the chance to engage in activities they love in a nurturing and supporting environment. Fostering their sense of belonging in a community helps them to build confidence. The skills adopted through the performing arts transfer to other areas of children’s education and their lives, developing life skills which will help them in the future, such as resilience, courage, self-expression, imagination, and assertiveness.
The Future of the Arts
It is important that we encourage children to engage with the performing arts, otherwise, we risk losing creative thinking amongst the next generation of the workforce. Innovation in the workplace is absolutely vital for the successful and productive future of the modern workforce. Creative Industries in the UK are worth £92 billion per year and provide three million jobs, one in every 11. It is the fastest growing sector; recent research from AHRC also shows that jobs demanding creativity are most likely to grow over the next decade. As things stand, what with cuts to arts funding, we risk side-lining creativity due to a perceived requirement to keep up with constantly advancing technologies. Doing so denies children the chance to develop the necessary life skills which will benefit them in later life.
Creative Courage for Life
Since joining Stagecoach, I have led the rebranding effort, introducing the strapline Creative Courage for Life, which has been adopted across the network. Creativity and courage are key to success, encouraging children to develop innovative solutions to the problems they face, address any challenges that come their way and enabling them to go forward and accomplish on the stage of life.
Performing arts – like any discipline, requires commitment and hard work to succeed. This is a vital skill which carries the children through in their lives. The importance of ‘soft’ skills can’t be underestimated. At Stagecoach, we help them unlock their potential and embrace new ideas and possibilities, whilst learning empathy, inclusiveness and decision making. As they hone these skills, children become more self-assured, expressive and sociable, taking these attributes forward into their adult lives.
Sarah Kelly, CEO, Stagecoach Performing Arts
About the author
Sarah Kelly is the CEO of Stagecoach Performing Arts. Appointed in 2013, she has led the business in a strategic turnaround to drive new growth and opportunity for all key stakeholders.
With previous experience as a marketing and sales director at Warner Bros, Sarah has proven herself to be a true patron of the arts. Her vision for Stagecoach was realised through rebranding efforts which led to a focus on ‘Creative Courage for Life’, the strapline which Sarah pioneered as a way to modernise the brand and draw focus on the power of the arts as a way of equipping children with fundamental skills necessary in life.
Sarah continues to manage a network of over 1800 schools and classes more than 3500 teachers which instruct over 48,000 pupils. The company now spans 8 countries and has partnered with the mental health charity Young Minds, as part of a wider effort to be a means of support and growth for young children.