Primary PE and Sports Premium Funding

What is it?

The government are committed to improving physical education (PE) and sport in primary schools. Funding has been allocated to primary schools. The funding is ring-fenced and so can only be spent on provision of PE and sport in schools.

How Primary PE and Sport premium funding should be used:

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

This means that they should use the premium to:

• develop or add to the PE and sport activities that their school already offers

• make improvements now that will benefit pupils joining the school in future years

For example, schools can use funding to:

• hire qualified sports coaches to work with teachers

• provide existing staff with training or resources to help them teach PE and sport more effectively

• introduce new sports or activities and encourage more pupils to take up sport

• support and involve the least active children by running or extending school sports clubs, holiday clubs and Change4Life clubs

• run sport competitions

• increase pupils’ participation in the School Games

• run sports activities with other schools

Schools should not use their funding to:

• employ coaches or specialist teachers to cover planning preparation and assessment (PPA) arrangements - these should come out of your core staffing budgets

• teach the minimum requirements of the national curriculum - including those specified for swimming (or, in the case of academies and free schools, to teach your existing PE curriculum)

Who is accountable?

Since September 2013, Ofsted inspections report on PE and sport provision and on how schools spend their additional funding. The government also hold schools accountable by requiring them to publish, on their websites, details of how they spend (or will spend) their PE and sport grant. They must also include detail about the impact this funding has on pupils’ PE and sport participation and attainment.