WHAT IS ‘PE AND SPORT PREMIUM’ FUNDING?

All young people should have the opportunity to live healthy and active lives. A positive experience of sport and physical activity at a young age can build a lifetime habit of participation, and is central to meeting the government’s ambitions for a world-class education system.

Physical activity has numerous benefits for children and young people’s physical health, as well as their mental wellbeing (increasing self-esteem and emotional wellbeing and lowering anxiety and depression), and children who are physically active are happier, more resilient and more trusting of their peers. Ensuring that pupils have access to sufficient daily activity can also have wider benefits for pupils and schools, improving behaviour as well as enhancing academic achievement.

Primary PE and Sport Premium is an initiative that aims to help increase and improve the PE and sporting opportunities for children. 

PE and Sport Premium funding is provided jointly by the Department for Education, the Department for Health and Culture and the Department for Media and Sport.  It has been allocated to primary school headteachers and is ring-fenced, meaning that it can only be spent on the provision of PE and sport in schools.

The Government believes that headteachers and school leaders should decide how to use the funding for PE and Sports in school. They are held accountable for the decisions they make through:

*The performance outcomes of all pupils compared with their peers

*The Ofsted inspection framework, under which inspectors focus on the attainment of pupil groups, in particular in those areas where specific funding has been provided

*The reports that schools are required to publish online (see below)

All primary schools receive a lump sum of £16,000 plus £10 per pupil aged 5 or over on roll.  Here at Damers, we have used the funding effectively to ensure that standards of learning and achievement in PE and Sports are raised, with all children, regardless of their background, engaging in physical activity as part of the curriculum and extra-curricular provision.