“ECB welcomes today’s announcement by the Government. A long-term funding commitment is essential if more children are to participate in sport from an early age and lead healthy, active lifestyles into adulthood.
“From cricket’s perspective, the ring-fenced funding together with a new capital stream will enable ECB to build still further on the success of our key development programmes for Primary School children; Chance to Shine and Kwik Cricket. More than two million children have now gone through the Chance to Shine programme since it was established in 2005 and nearly 150,000 children took part in our Kwik Cricket initiative last year – an annual increase of 27.5 per cent. We look forward to working closely with the Government to ensure the funding has maximum impact, helps strengthen existing links between cricket clubs and schools and delivers a lasting legacy for all sports in terms of greater participation and wider community involvement.”
FA General Secretary Alex Horne said:
“The FA welcomes today’s announcement that the School Sport Premium will be funded through to 2020. Providing every Primary School with the means to invest in high quality early years sport and PE is essential to ensuring that all boys and girls have the chance to develop a sporting habit for life.
“In the last 7 years The FA Skills programme has delivered over 5 million opportunities for boys and girls between the ages of 5 and 11 to experience and enjoy high quality football coaching. We have operated in over 7,000 schools providing training and professional development for over 22,000 teachers. Today’s announcement will provide schools and Head Teachers with the certainty they need to continue to invest in sport and to place programmes such as FA Skills at the heart of their curriculum.”
LTA Chief Executive Michael Downey said:
“British Tennis welcomes this commitment to extend investment into primary school sport. Having high quality PE provision is essential to ensuring children have positive experiences of sport at an early age, as this will encourage young people to make sport a part of their lives. British Tennis’ own schools programme, now in over half the schools in the country, will benefit from this commitment as it supports our ambition of getting more young people playing our great game.”
Premier League Chief Executive Richard Scudamore said:
“The Premier League supports the commitment to raise the profile of sport in primary schools. Sport is a vital component of every child’s upbringing and our clubs welcome this innovative funding development. Football clubs are hubs of their communities and already work closely with many schools, using the attraction of football to encourage more children to get involved in, and enjoy sport.”
Notes to Editors
Last year, the Government announced a £150 million-a-year premium for two years to improve the quality of provision in every state primary school in England. The premium means £150 million a year going straight into the hands of headteachers to spend on sporting activities to best suit their children’s needs. A typical primary school with 250 primary aged pupils this year received £9,250, the equivalent of around two days a week of a primary teacher or a coach’s time – enough to make sure every pupil in the school can do sport with a specialist.
The funding began in September 2013 and is already making a difference.
Primary schools around England are already using the premium to:
• Up-skill teachers to improve the quality of sport lessons
• invest in quality coaching
• provide more opportunities for pupils to take part in inter-school competitions
• offer more after-school clubs
• purchase better equipment
• introduce new and unusual sports as diverse as fencing, climbing, ultimate Frisbee and Danish long-ball to encourage more children to enjoy sport.
• improve sport teaching for children with special educational needs
• deliver holiday and weekend activities
• Boost Change 4 life clubs, helping children help build a healthier lifestyle
The Government has since confirmed that funding will continue for an extra year (2015-6).
£18 million boost for primary school sport facilities
In addition to extending the premium, the Prime Minister also confirmed that from this month primary schools across England will be able to apply for a share of an £18 million fund to improve outdoor spaces for PE and sporting activities.
The Lottery-funded scheme will be run by Sport England and will prioritise schools with limited outside space and a strong commitment to PE and sport. The schools are expected to receive an average of £30,000 each to help them vastly improve their sports provision. The funding will ensure they have better equipment and facilities – for example, turning a concrete playground into a quality space for PE and sporting activities, using innovative design to make good use of small space. If schools are interested in receiving further details they should send an email including their school’s postal and email addresses to primaryschoolfacilities@sportengland.org
Training specialist primary schools sports teachers
The Prime Minister also confirmed today that a new pilot programme to produce a cadre of primary teachers with a particular specialism in PE has seen sixty-one trainees complete the course and fifty-nine more begin it this January. The total 120 specialist teachers, who will support other teachers to develop their skills and drive up the quality of PE teaching, are expected to take up their first posts in primary schools from September.
The special course forms a part of the initial teacher training and has been developed by three Teaching Schools: Belleville (London), Thomas Telford (Telford), and Ashton-on-Mersey (Sale, Cheshire) in conjunction with sporting bodies and partner universities. The training schools are currently recruiting for a further cohort of 120 trainees to start training in September 2014, which will mean over 200 specialist primary PE/sport teachers in post by September 2015.
School Games
The Prime Minister also announced an additional £11 million investment for the School Games to help continue to inspire more young people to take up competitive sport.
Organised by the Youth Sport Trust and supported by National Lottery and exchequer funding from Sport England, the School Games aims to enable every school and child to participate in competitive sport, including meaningful opportunities for young people with disabilities. Designed across four levels, for both primary and secondary pupils, it offers opportunities for young people to compete in intra-school, inter-school and regional competitions.