Beyond the scoreboard: where arts and humanities still win

In a results culture that prizes the sciences, it is easy to forget that some of the country’s most durable schools built their reputations on debate cups, music festivals and history departments that sent pupils to read law and literature abroad.

We visited schools that still treat the arts and humanities as core rather than ornamental. What they share is not budget but seriousness: timetabled rehearsal, teachers who publish or perform, and a head who turns up to the drama festival as readily as the rugby final. The pupils notice, and so, eventually, do the universities.