PESportsPremiumGeneral

Introduction

The PE and Sports Premium funding was introduced by the Coalition Government in 2013, following the ‘legacy’ of the successful 2012 London Olympic Games, with the aim of enabling schools to promote high-quality physical education and sports provision for all ages.  Initially, schools received at least £8,000 per year to develop provision for PE and sport.  In 2017, this funding was doubled to at least £16,000 per year, in response to the growing concern regarding high levels of obesity and low levels of activity of school-aged children and the general population.  With the exception of a small grant for music, the PE and Sports Premium funding is the only funding allocated to schools which is earmarked for a specific subject or activity and, in many small schools such as Northenden Community School, the funding for this will outweigh the total budget of all other curriculum areas.

The school can use its PE and Sports Premium funding to:

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

Specifically, school must use the premium to secure improvements in the following indicators:

  • the engagement of all pupils in regular physical activity – the Chief Medical Offer guidelines recommend that all children and young people engage in at least 60 minutes of physical activity a day, of which 30 minutes should be 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.

General National Aims

The PE and Sports Premium funding for schools is one of the ways in which the government aim to achieve much wider and long-term goals for the country’s health and well-being which include:

  • to use the inspirational power of the Games and subsequent major sporting events to help deliver
    lasting change in sport and physical activity;
  • Britain continues to be one of the leading nations in the world in Olympic and Paralympic sport;
  • The UK is one of the best places in the world to stage major sporting events, with
    each one delivering its own lasting economic and social legacy;
  • Britain is amongst the most physically active countries in the developed world;
  • Health services harness physical activity for prevention, treatment and management
    of long term conditions;
  • The built environment and our transport infrastructure will be transformed to drive
    high levels of walking and cycling;
  • Every man, woman and child can find a sport they enjoy and in which they are able
    to get involved easily, regardless of their ability or disability;
  • Every child and young person enjoys high quality sporting opportunities on well-maintained
    and accessible sports facilities and playing pitches;
  • Everyone inspired by our hosting the Games to take up sport has stayed connected
    with it for life;
  • The big sports participation gender gap in Britain that existed in 2012 has closed.

Until 2015, Government’s approach towards sport focused to a large extent on the number of people playing grassroots sport and the number of medals that were won at elite competition. “Sporting Future: a new strategy for an active nation”, the new government sport strategy published in December 2015, represented a significant shift in policy. It looks at how sport and physical activity can improve and contribute to five key outcomes:

  • physical well-being
  • mental well-being
  • individual development
  • social and community development
  • economic development. 

The strategy represented a significant step in the Government’s work on physical activity, first set out in 2014’s “Moving More, Living More” paper. This paper described government’s intention to deliver a physical activity legacy from London 2012 and to work collaboratively across sectors to tackle inactivity. Public Health England followed this work with “Everybody Active, Every Day” later in 2014, a national physical activity framework.  Following the publication of “Sporting Future”, Sport England published their 2016 strategy “Towards an Active Nation”, setting out how it would support grassroots sport to deliver against the new Government aims. This placed inactivity at the heart of their work, with £250m of funding dedicated to tackling physical inactivity over the next four years.

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