I’ve always thought that the run up to Christmas is the time to see schools at their very best.

Christmas productions will be in full swing - from traditional Nativity plays to contemporary productions like Santa’s on Strike.

Teachers will be in their element trying to pull together a wonderful show for family and friends, all the while developing their pupils teamwork, communication and most of all, creative skills.

Today at Kirkby Lonsdale’s Queen Elizabeth School, pupils will be anxiously waiting in the wings for their performance of the Nutcracker ballet accompanied by the school orchestra playing Tchaikovsky’s original score.

The ballet has been choreographed by head of dance Jasper Marriot and head of music Gareth Leather has also worked incredibly hard help pupils make their playing compatible with the dancing.

When I looked around the school a few weeks ago the buzz in the rehearsal studio was electric with young dancers - many of them male - practising their moves.

There can’t be many schools in the country that select a ballet for their Christmas production let alone a state secondary school with a rural catchment area.

Queen Elizabeth School’s boldly creative vision is a real inspiration and just one of the many incredible artistic endeavours going on in South Lakeland.

Over at Crosthwaite pupils were putting the finishing touches to their Christmas play Babushka.

Jewel-coloured costumes, Russian hats and witty lines will give students confidence and independence - surely skills we all believe are inherent to a ‘good education’.

It therefore seems a shame that when the creative arts offer so much to young people that education secretary Michael Gove wishes to avoid GCSE art, music, dance or drama from his vision for the English Baccalaureate qualification.

His league table, which grades pupils on their GCSE passes at grade C and above at English, maths, science, history or geography or a language, doesn’t seem to take into account the technical difficulty performing arts qualifications entail.

If South Lakeland acts as a snap shot of the standard of arts in British schools then the Government seems is missing a trick by excluding it from their account of academic excellence.

When things are this good, surely arts qualifications need to be celebrated?