The Government is providing funding of £150 million per annum for academic years 2013/14 and 2014/15 to provide new, substantial primary school sport funding’. This funding is being jointly provided by the Departments for Education, Health and Culture, Media and Sport, and will see money going directly to primary school headteachers to spend on improving the quality of sport and PE for all their children.
The sport funding can only be spent on sport and PE provision in schools.
Eligible schools
Funding for schools will be calculated by the number of primary-aged pupils (between the ages of 5 and 11) as at the annual schools census in January 2013.
All schools with 17 or more primary-aged pupils will receive a lump sum of £8000 plus a premium of £5 per pupil. Smaller schools will receive £500 per pupil.
Purpose of funding
Schools will have to spend the sport funding on improving their provision of PE and sport, but they will have the freedom to choose they do this.
Possible uses for the funding include:
hiring specialist PE teachers or qualified sports coaches to work alongside primary teachers when teaching PE
new or additional Change4Life sport clubs
paying for professional development opportunities in PE/sport
providing cover to release primary teachers for professional development in PE/sport
running sport competitions, or increasing participation in the school games
buying quality assured professional development modules or materials for PE/sport
providing places for pupils on after school sport clubs and holiday clubs.
Accountability
Schools will be held to account for how they spend the sport funding. Ofsted will strengthen its coverage of sport and PE within the Inspectors’ Handbook and supporting guidance, so that schools and inspectors know how sport and PE will be assessed in future as part of the school’s overall provision offered.
Schools will be required to include details about their sporting provision on their school website, alongside their curriculum details, so parents can compare sports provision between schools, both within and beyond the school day.
Best practice
Schools will be able to draw on information on effective practice taken from case studies provided by the very best schools. One year on, Ofsted will carry out a survey reporting on the first year’s expenditure and its impact.
Funding period
The sport premium will be paid for the two academic years 2013/14 and 2014/15.
All state-maintained secondary schools, academies, middle schools, special schools (including non-maintained special schools) and pupil referral units which have primary aged pupils (as reported in the 2013 school census) will receive funding.
Amount of funding per school - a breakdown
For example, a school with 16 eligible pupils would receive £8000. One with 12 would receive £6000 and one with five eligible pupils – the smallest that we know of – would receive £2500.
How the funding will be paid
For 2013/14 and 2014/15 the sport funding will be included in the additional grant for schools (AGS) 2013-14 and 2014-15. AGS is distributed to local authorities in late September or early October each year.
The payments will cover the total funding for the academic years 1 September 2013 to 31 August 2014 and 1 September 2014 to 31 August 2015. The allocations for each eligible school in the authority will be set out in a spreadsheet that will accompany the note on the conditions of grant for the initiatives being supported by the AGS.
Academies will receive their AGS directly from the Education Funding Agency (EFA).
Eligible special schools will receive their funding directly from the Department’s special education needs and disability division.
Accounting for the spending
Schools will be held to account for how they spend the sport funding. Ofsted will strengthen its coverage of sport and PE within the inspection handbook and supporting guidance, so that schools and inspectors know how sport and PE will be assessed in future as part of the overall provision offered by the school.
