Responding to the new data, Jack Gamble, director of the Campaign for the Arts, said: “The crisis in arts education is not just a story of falling enrolment, but widening inequality. Every child should have opportunities to discover and develop an interest in the arts, whatever their background and whatever their postcode.

He added: “That’s why we have welcomed the government’s pledge to ‘revitalise arts education’ in England’s state-funded secondary schools and why we’re urging ministers to deliver on that pledge with the necessary policy changes, teaching staff and schools funding.”