Ms Helen O'Donoghue:

ETAI acknowledges the invaluable work done in the field of arts and cultural education for children and young people in and out of school in Ireland. This work has been initiated and supported during the years by many organisations, including the Arts Council, the national cultural institutions, the Department of Education and Skills and the local authorities, through arts officers and librarians often working in collaboration with other agencies and individual practitioners. ETAI acknowledges the long-standing programmes in operation nationwide, many of which have been mentioned, including the artist in residence scheme, the Association for Creativity and Arts in Education creative schools award, music generation, National Association of Principal and Deputy Principals creative engagement and other programmes that support children and young people in an out-of-school context. ETAI welcomes key policy developments and associated programmes, including the Arts in Education Charter; the document for cultural institutions, A Fresh View for the 21st Century: Education, Community, Outreach Policy Framework 2014; the Arts Council's Making Great Art Work; and Creative Ireland and the forthcoming Culture 2025 policy. Cumulatively, they provide the sector with a policy framework to enable greater coherence and alignment between education and the arts and culture sectors.

Since the early days of ETAI, the alliance has successfully mobilised action across the field of arts and cultural education from individual practitioners to arts organisations and education centres, regional arts officers, national cultural institutions and third level colleges, among others. Our impetus for action was the successful collaborative process that produced the Arts Council Artists-Schools Guidelines. Another influential factor was the disappointing response to the points of alignment framework and the shared belief the recommendations in these policy initiatives should take root in practice. ETAI informed the debate through three symposia held during 2009 and 2010. Members of the alliance were contributors and lead programmers, including at the final international conference entitled, Encountering the Arts Ireland.

We remain involved in advocacy that draws on the combined expertise of our membership. ETAI has been well placed to act as a network organisation in support of and as an adviser on some of the key initiatives, including the Arts in Education Charter mentioned by Dr. Sweeney, Creative Ireland and Culture 2025. We often produce submissions and position papers on behalf of our members.

ETAI members are part of the design team of the teacher artist partnership continuous professional development programme referenced my colleague, Dr. Sweeney. We are part of the design team alongside the Department of Education and Skills, the Association of Teachers Education Centres in Ireland and the Association for Creativity and Arts in Education.

ETAI is a member of the Arts in Education portal oversight group and more recently has become a member of the national repository for arts education research working group. We have been actively supportive of the design and contributed to the delivery of the national arts education day in the past three years. The role of the alliance in these initiatives includes advisory and programming work. In addition, ETAI has attended a number of consultative meetings with the Arts Council on the ARIS arts rich schools initiative, currently known as Creative Schools. We have met the Creative Ireland team in the context of the development of the overall programme.

ETAI has prepared a detailed research proposal that focuses on formal, informal and non-formal learning arts and cultural learning in schools and youth work settings. This research aims to identify approaches to assessing sustainable quality arts and cultural engagement by children and young people. It builds on existing research in this field, including the informative works recently produced in the Arts Council in association with the ERSI study by Dr. Emer Smyth on arts and cultural participation among children and young people. It was drawn from insights from the Growing Up in Ireland study and, as outlined by Dr. Sweeney, on exploring the teacher artist partnership as a model of continuous professional development for Supporting and Enhancing Arts Education in Ireland: A Research Project, undertaken by Dr. Ailbhe Kenny and Dr. Dorothy Morrissey.

We have several recommendations for the committee on the Arts in Education Charter. We are keen to see the post of chair of the Arts in Education Charter higher implementation group filled. We support the review and revision of the Arts in Education Charter in an ongoing way in the light of current developments. We support the development of the charter, working in tandem with developments in Creative Ireland. We support research to identify approaches to assessing sustainable quality arts and cultural engagement by children and young people in and out of school. We support continuous professional development at all levels of leadership and delivery to enhance the progress of a coherent infrastructure that will mutually support and aligns energies and resources. In turn, this will ensure effective and efficient quality arts and cultural engagement by all children and young people in formal and non-formal settings.