Primary Schools Sports Funding

The Government is providing substantial primary school sport funding. This funding is being jointly provided by the Departments for Education, Health and Culture, Media and Sport, and is going directly to primary schools to spend on improving the quality of sport and P.E. for all their children.

Purpose of the Premium

The government has provided this additional funding to improve provision for physical education (PE) and sport in primary schools. This funding has been ring-fenced to be spent on provision of PE and sport in schools, to improve the quality and breadth of PE and sport provision and pupils’ lifestyles and physical wellbeing in order to:

• increase the participation and success in competitive school sports
• show how inclusive the physical education curriculum has become
• extend the range of traditional and alternative sporting activities
• improve partnership work on physical education with other schools and other local partners
• link PE with other subjects that contribute to pupils’ overall achievement and their greater social, spiritual, moral and cultural skills
• give a greater awareness amongst pupils about the dangers of obesity, smoking and other such activities that undermine pupils’ health

We must use the funding to make additional and sustainable improvements to the quality of PE and sport we offer.

This means that we should use the premium to:

• develop or add to the PE and sport activities that we already offers
• build capacity and capability within school to ensure that improvements made now will benefit pupils joining us in future years

The Government highlight 5 key indicators that we should expect to see improvement across:

• the engagement of all pupils in regular physical activity – the Chief Medical Officer guidelines recommend that all children and young people aged 5 to 18 engage in at least 60 minutes of physical activity a day, of which 30 minutes should be here in school
• the profile of PE and sport is raised across the school as a tool for whole-school improvement
• increased confidence, knowledge and skills of all staff in teaching PE and sport
• broader experience of a range of sports and activities offered to all pupils
• increased participation in competitive sport