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St Matthews CofE Primary School

St Matthew's

Church of England Primary School

"Our vision is to enable our whole school community to live life in all its fullness." based on John 10:10

Sports Grant

What is the PE and Sports Grant?

In March 2013 the Education Funding Agency announced that it would provide additional funding to each school to improve provision of physical education (PE) and sport in primary schools in England. This funding - provided jointly by the Departments for Education, Health and Culture, Media and Sport - is allocated to primary school head teachers. The funding is ring-fenced and therefore can only be spent on provision of PE and sport in schools.

The premium must be spent by schools on making additional and sustainable improvements to the provision of PE and sport for the benefit of all pupils to encourage the development of healthy, active lifestyles.

Funding for schools is calculated by reference to the number of primary-aged pupils (between the ages of 5 and 11), as recorded in the annual schools census in January. 

Purpose of Funding

Schools must spend the additional funding on improving their provision of PE and sport, but they will have the freedom to choose how they do this.

Possible uses for the funding might include:

  1. Hiring specialist PE teachers or qualified sports coaches to work with primary teachers when teaching PE
  2. Supporting and engaging the least active children through new or additional clubs
  3. Paying for professional development opportunities for teachers in PE and sport
  4. Providing cover to release primary teachers for professional development in PE and sport
  5. Running sport competitions, or increasing pupils’ participation in School Games
  6. Buying quality assured professional development modules or materials for PE and sport
  7. Providing places for pupils on after school sports clubs and holiday club

St. Matthew’s Sports Funding

Providing Places for Pupils for an After School Club

Our school already offers a wide range of before and after school clubs, accessed by children throughout the school. These clubs are provided by members of our staff (free of charge) alongside other clubs provided by outside specialists for a small fee. The Sports Funding Grant will continue to be used to fund places for children who are reluctant to engage in sport in the hope that we can encourage more active participation in physical activity throughout the school and promote life-long healthy attitudes.

Continued Professional Development of Teaching Staff

The school has employed the services of Teddy Tennis, specialist tennis coaches to deliver PE lessons alongside our teaching staff. This has proved to be highly successful and raised teacher confidence and skills. Therefore, we are planning to extend this provision to Year One as well as Reception pupils. We also plan to have twilight professional development for a range of PE topics including: invasion games, gymnastics, dance and striking and fielding games. These initiatives will benefit pupils throughout the school, as the coaches will be working with teachers from every year group. The purpose of this will be to assist the teachers with the planning, teaching and assessment of primary school PE to ensure the high standards in this subject are maintained and further increase staff knowledge and confidence. The funding will also be used to allow teachers to go on courses to enhance their knowledge in various aspects of PE and fund covering their position during school hours if the training is off site.

School Sports Partnerships

The school is continuing to buy into the Kingston School Sports Partnership (KSSP) as this provides the school with competitions in which pupils can compete against other schools in the borough. Last year we increased the number of sporting competitions in which our children represented the school. Funding in this area will also involve allowing staff to attend meetings in order to organise such events. In addition, the funding will allow the school to participate in as many competitions as possible as it will be used to cover costs for these events, through releasing staff.

Equipment

Funding will also be spent on ensuring that the school has fit and proper equipment in order for the teaching of the PE curriculum and other clubs to be taught effectively. Equipment will be replaced and added to, to ensure that this takes place.

Swimming
Following the success rate of the last academic year, where 52 out of 57 (just over 91%) of our Year 6 children were able to reach the 25m swimming unaided achievement target, we will continue to provide further provision for those children in year 6 who do not achieve this by offering extra classes during the summer holidays.