Renewed investment for primary school sport

Taken from www.youthsporttrust.org 

• Sport Premium extended to 2016
• Primary School Sport Facilities Fund from 2014

On Thursday 5th December, the Government announced new funding for primary school sport in the form of a further £150 million to continue the School Sport Premium.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer's Autumn statement revealed that the Sport Premium will now be extended into the academic year 2015/2016, having originally only been guaranteed for two years. The funding, which has been available since the start of the current academic year, is allocated directly to primary schools, providing them with dedicated resource to increase PE and school sport provision in their schools, and was due to end in Summer 2015.

In response to the continued investment, Baroness Sue Campbell, Chair of the Youth Sport Trust said:

"We welcome the news that funding for PE and school sport in primary schools is to continue. The need for long-term investment in school sport is something the Youth Sport Trust has championed for some time. This additional funding will mean that schools can make further plans to provide high quality PE and school sport opportunities for their young people - it cannot and must not be wasted.

"The most crucial thing is that we continue to support schools to ensure they make the right decisions that have a long-term impact for young people. I believe that if schools have effective development plans in place to improve provision and outcomes in and through PE, physical activity and school sport, then we are heading in the right direction. The Youth Sport Trust has developed our own official guide on how schools should maximise this investment, ensuring sustainable impact for all young people. This is a free resource available on our website (/how-we-can-help/primary-school-sport-funding.aspx) and I would encourage all primary schools to access it."

The Government also confirmed new funding from Sport England that will benefit young people in primary schools.

From 2014 onwards, primary schools will be able to benefit from £18 million of National Lottery funding to improve sports facilities. The Primary School Sport Facilities Fund will be run by Sport England; in partnership with the Youth Sport Trust and will help primary schools that have little or no outside space to get more young people active.

Baroness Campbell commented: "This new funding for facilities provides another boost to sport in primary schools. It builds on our own feedback from schools which want to improve PE and school sport opportunities for young people, but are struggling due to a lack of space or poor facilities. For many schools, with this funding comes new and difficult decisions. We must make it a priority to support head teachers on how best to use their funding to ensure an impact for all young people in a sustainable way.

"We are very pleased to be working in partnership with Sport England to support schools on how best to maximise this funding. This will enable schools to create the most appropriate spaces to deliver high quality PE lessons and provide more opportunities for all young people to be active and take part in a variety of sports."

In February 2014, a set of selection criteria will be published and between February and March, schools which think they meet the criteria will be invited to submit an expression of interest via an application form. By July 2014, schools will be notified of decisions. Schools that are interested in receiving further details when they become available in February will need to send an email including the school's postal and email addresses toprimaryschoolfacilities@sportengland.org.

Newcastle Schools meet Olympic and World Champions

Newcastle Great City Sprints

Benfield School hosted the 1st round of the Newcastle Great City Sprints which the School Games Organisers coordinated in conjunction with Nova International in the build up to the Great City Games which sees Team GB compete against Team USA on the Newcastle/Gateshead Quayside.

Team USA Athlete Ryan Wilson attended the round 1 competition and supported all the pupils taking part as well as doing a question and answer session at the end of the competition.

The Great School Sprint is a fun, competitive, inclusive and FREE challenge open to all Year 7 children throughout Newcastle and Gateshead and is a fantastic opportunity to be part of the world class Great City Games.

It starts with a sprint race within School and gives everyone a chance to take part, with Newcastle and Gateshead fastest boys and girls from each location, joining some of the world's best athletes on the Quayside of Newcastle/Gateshead at the Great City Games.

The fastest 34 boys and girls attended round 2 which was indoors at the Sage on a specially built 50m track. Athletes David Oliver and Ryan Bailey from Team USA and James Dasalou from Team GB dropped by and lent a hand as well as answering questions. The fastest 4 boys and girls qualified for round 3 which was on the day of the Great City Games in front of the BBC cameras.

A big thank you must go out to all the teachers who supported round 1 and 2 and arranged for pupils to come out of school to attend round 2 at the Sage. The schools who made teh effort to participate in the competition were:-

Benfield School
Walbottle Campus
St Mary's RC
Gosforth Central Middle
Kenton Academy
Heaton Manor

Keith McGowan, Deputy Head of PE and lead for School Sport at Benfield School said "I m am over the moon our pupils did so well at the Great City Sprints considering they have only been with us for 2 weeks"

Ian Kendall, School Games Organiser said " To be able to provide the opportunity for pupils to meet and be coached and  supported by Olympic and World Champions is a once in a lifetime experience. We continue to look forward to host the Great City Sprints next year with the continued support of Nova International"

Newcastle Schools Travel to National Badminton Finals

Last weekend saw the National Finals of the Center Parcs Badminton Competition take place in Sherwood Forrest, Nottingham; and 3 Newcastle based schools travelled to participate in the event.  Heaton Manor in the Key Stage 3 Girls, Benfield in the Key Stage 4 Boys and the Royal Grammar School in the Key Stage 4 Girls made up the Newcastle contingent; this competition brings the best of the best together and the standard is incredibly high every year.

The 3 schools each started their journey to the finals by entering the School Games Level 2 and Level 3 events in Tyne and Wear, before progressing to the regional round and proving to be too strong for their competition.  Their successes to this point alone are worth recognition, even before travelling to the National Finals.

Heaton Manor's team of 4 Key Stage 3 girls have been kind enough to share a few words written about their experience, following their participation last weekend.......

"The journey to Center Parcs took about 4 hours, so when we arrived we only had time for a quick session in the pool.  We returned to our lodge which was to be our home for the next two nights and devoured a pizza, or two..........

On Saturday morning the tension was high so a decent breakfast was in order to set us up for the busy day ahead.  We got ready and left sharply for the competition which began at 9.30am.  From the moment we arrived we could appreciate the standard of teams and we knew today was going to be tough!

The day taught us some very important lessons, and whilst we came away with no medals we felt we progressed massively in performance and were proud that we had the chance to compete against some of the countries best players."



Well done girls, your staff and Newcastle School Games are very proud of you



their teacher said.......

"they have certainly enjoyed the experience and there were plenty of highlights; not least the meet, greet and photo opportunity with Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms, as well as the goody bags and Center Parcs pool.  They were a delight to take away and we're so proud of them."

The 3 Newcastle schools achieved the following....

Benfield - 6th - Key Stage 4 Boys

RGS - 6th - Key Stage 4 Girls

Heaton Manor - 9th - Key Stage 3 Girls 

The Newcastle School Games Team would like to extend their congratulations to the 3 school teams above and we trust you all enjoyed the experience of the weekends competition.

Primary School Sport Funding

Exclusive: Campbell hopeful of primary school sport investment ahead of Government announcement

Youth Sport Trust (YST) chair Baroness Sue Campbell claimed she is hopeful that there will be a big investment in primary school sport with Education Secretary Michael Gove set to make a major announcement on the issue later this month.
Gove's Department for Education (DfE), who assume responsibility for school sport in the UK, have often come under criticism from the physical education sector, particularly in their first Comprehensive Spending Review in October 2010 when they announced the entire £162 million funding for the School Sports Partnerships would be axed.

The move was met by such a fierce wave of protests from teachers, pupils and Olympic athletes that the Government had to partially backtrack on the decision and reinstall some of the funding for a period.

Following the success of London 2012, there have been renewed calls for more investment in school sport to help continue the legacy drive of the Games and with Gove's school sport announcement scheduled for next week, Campbell said she wants to see a boost for primary schools.

"Listening to the headteachers and school sport leaders here, there is a real recognition that we need to do something around primary school physical education," Campbell told insidethegames at the Youth Sport Trust 2013 Conference here.

"That doesn't mean to say that there isn't still work to be done in secondary schools because there is.

"But at secondary school level, there are some existing structures in place and tools such as the School Games which they can use.

"But in primary schools, everybody acknowledges that if we don't get it right, then we are not laying the foundations for health and we are not laying the foundations for sport for young children.

"So we would hope that the announcement will represent some significant investment in primary physical education."

Campbell, who is also UK Sport chair, admitted it would have been better to see the announcement come straight after London 2012 to help build on the momentum of the successful Olympics and Paralympics.

Education Secretary Michael Gove will make an announcement on school sport this month, although he has been widely criticised with a lack of commitment on the issue

"But in the end, if it is the right announcement, a good announcement and it offers the right kind of investment, then I think we can get on with it," she said.

"I think any impatience from schools over the announcement is them wanting to know that at the Government level, school sport does matter and that it hasn't been forgotten.

"It is just a desire to push on.

"So that it is the right announcement for school sport is far more important than the timing."

The YST chair also looked to play down any rift with Gove, who has come constant under attack at the conference in Telford for his lack of commitment to school sport.

"I think we do have to get away from personalising this too much and focusing on a particular individual," she said.

"This is a Government responsibility and that means the Department of Education, the Department of Health and the Department of Culture, Media and Sport.

It is not just the responsibility of one person and one Department; it is a responsibility of everyone in Government from the Prime Minister down.

"I think it is dangerous if it gets too personalised against an individual and that certainly isn't helpful for anyone.

"This issue is much too important than that.

"This can't be me against an individual or an individual against me because that is nonsense.

"We want the Government to work coherently with us for the good of young people in schools."

This article was taken from Inside the games and written by Tom Deggun, contact him at tom.degun@insidethegames.biz

Leadership Academy Students Achieve Their First Goal

Earlier this academic year the Newcastle School Games Team were excited to launch their Leadership Academy for the first time.  The team established the academy to provide a bespoke package for its members and were committed to working with young people demonstrating a professional approach to their leadership activity, hence the inclusion of a mentoring aspect.

Students from across the city in Years 10-13 were encouraged to apply to be members of the academy and showcase the qualities and experience they would bring to the table; as well as source a reference from a member of staff at their school.

Successful candidates have been issued with their own personal logbooks which include a description of the School Games Values, a Code of Conduct, a description of the Mentoring Process, a page for some Personal Goal Setting, somewhere to log their hours throughout the year and a competition calendar.

The Leadership Academy provides young people with opportunities to officiate, coach and event manage at School Games events in our calendar.  Feedback is then provided to the individual and staff back at their school so that achievements can be celebrated accordingly.  In connection with this we've also established a Reward Scheme linked to the academy as we think it’s really important to acknowledge the positive impact our Leaders have on our younger children across the city.

Today’s blog has come about because on Friday we had cause to celebrate the achievements of a couple of our Leaders who attend Excelsior Academy; 3 students from the school have been the first to achieve the first milestone on the Reward Scheme and were presented with their Leadership Academy T-Shirts as a result.

These students have attended a number of our School Games events and proved to be more than competent in the way they organised the groups of young people they were working with.  They were punctual, polite and professional in their approach on each occasion and a credit to Excelsior School.  The staff at the school support their leaders and also support the School Games team by hosting events at their facility.

We very much look forward to working with them as the year continues and the opportunity to reward them further as they engage with the programme more and more.  Working with young people with their qualities is not only a pleasure but they bring additional positive outcomes to the events we organise.

The Newcastle School Games Team cant wait to have more members of the Leadership Academy wearing the t-shirts and sharing their experiences with their peers, family and staff.

Newcastle Schools win the School Games Level 3, Tyne & Wear Badminton Final

Heaton Manor & Benfield Schools win the

County Badminton Championships

Congratulations to Heaton Manor Girls and Benfield Boys who won the School Games, Level 3, Tyne and Wear, Key Stage 3 Boys and Girls 'Centre Parcs' Badminon Finals this afternoon hosted at John Spence Community High School. The competition was made up from the champions and runners up from schools in Sunderland, South Tyneside, Gateshead and North Tyneside.

A special mention must also go to Sacred Heart who finished runner up in the girls competition  in a close match against Heaton Manor.

The winning schools will now go forward to the North East Round on 11th March which is being hosted by Northumbria University in their £30 million venue, Sport Central . The North East Final is made up of from the champions and runners up from Tees Valley, County Durham and Northumberland and is one stage away from the National Schools final in Nottingham.