Sports Premium
Background
The Government has provided annual funding of £150 million to provide new, substantial primary school sport funding in order to improve the provision of physical education and sport in primary schools. There are many reasons for this substantial pay-out, one of the main driving forces has been the increasing concern over childhood obesity. Our world is progressing quickly, the convenience of jumping into cars to drive around the block and the lure of instant gratification of screen time for all regardless of age has led, generally, to less active lifestyles.
As with everything we do in school, we really appreciate you working with us to support our efforts. The government recommendation is that every child partakes in 60 minutes of activity a day, only 30 mins of which have to be provided by the school. Something as simple as the way you travel to school, extra-curricular clubs, fun programs your children can play and view at home such as the sporting Wii games and the recently launched and free to view site BBC Supermovers - (see link below) can all help ensure the other 30 minutes are covered and often exceeded. Technology is not an essential, a simple game of throw and catch with a cushion counts, this is not about high intensity exercise it is about getting up off the chair and moving. Active children are more effective learners, they are stronger and more positive. Physical health contributes greatly to mental health and we hope that our active children will feel increasingly less stressed or anxious and are generally happier. There is little point honing brilliant maths skills, for instance, if they reside in an unhealthy body and unhappy mind. At Barley and Barkway schools we want to help the whole child to flourish and grow strong.
The funding has been jointly provided by the Departments for Education, Health and Culture, Media and Sport, and the money goes directly to schools to be spent on improving the quality of sport and PE for all their children. All state-maintained schools, academies, middle schools, special schools and pupil referral units which have primary aged pupils (as reported in the 2013 school census) are receiving this funding.
This funding has been ring-fenced and therefore can only be spent on the provision for PE and sport in schools. However, it can be used for anything that will make children more active generally so it can be used for other areas of the curriculum, as long as there is an element of activity. We are now held accountable for how we use the additional funding to support pupils’ progress and participation in PE and school sport. We are required to publish on-line information about how we have used and plan to use the additional funding.
Allocation
All schools with 17 or more primary-aged pupils will receive a lump sum of £8000 plus a premium of £10 per pupil. Smaller schools will receive £500 per pupil.
How we will be spending the Sports Premium funding
Our aims for the way we spend the Sports Premium funding:
- all children benefit (regardless of sporting ability)
- children are given the opportunity to compete in tournaments with other schools
- staff have access to training opportunities and continued professional development
- we make use of collaborative and partnership working
- With the above rationale in mind, and following the guidelines for how to spend this money, our initial plan for the use of the Sports Premium funding included:
- investment in the professional development of staff at our school so they are best equipped to teach high quality Physical Education and
school sport for years to come. This will include providing cover to release staff for professional development in PE and sport. - continued membership of the North Herts School Partnership (School Games).
- increasing the amount of competitive sport in which our children participate – running sport competitions, and increasing pupils’ participation in inter and intra school competitions.
- continuing to take part in local sports competitions/ events organised by the Herts Partnership.
- hiring qualified sports coaches to work alongside staff for PE modules and extra-curricular clubs.
- hiring motivational life coaches for Change for Life extra-curricular clubs.
- encouraging our children to improve their leadership skills through sport – through sports leader initiative (SSoC Reps).
- inviting sports providers into the school to inspire our children. ImpactMeasuring the impact of the activities provided with sports premium funding can be achieved in different ways, with pupil and parent surveys, analysis of assessment data, videos, photos and anecdotal observations. We will look at progress in PE as well as other areas of development such as self-esteem, confidence and the numbers of pupils involved in sporting activities in and out of school. We will assess how active a child is across a school day and a school week. We will also evaluate the impact of professional development opportunities in improving teaching and learning in PE.Naomi Gould (PE and PSHE Leader)
- Please click on the links to see our action plans that show how we plan to spend the funding and our hopes for the impact the spend will make.
- We will evaluate the impact of the Sports Premium funding as part of our normal self-evaluation. We will look at how well we use our Sport Premium to improve the quality and breadth of PE and sporting provision, including increasing participation in PE and sport so that all pupils develop healthy lifestyles and reach the performance levels they are capable of.
- The government has provided schools with 5 key indicators to help us focus our planning and evaluating of the sport premium spend. Even though we have actions for each indicator, we have decided that for 2021/2022 we will focus specifically on the key indicators, 1 and 4.
by Tara Edwards PE and PSHE lead for Barley and Barkway First Schools Federation.
5 Extra Years
Today's kids are the first generation with a shorter life expectancy than their parents. What would you do with five more years? www.designedtomove.org