PE and Sport Funding Impact

The government has provided additional funding to improve provision of physical education (PE) and sport in primary schools. This funding is provided jointly by the Departments for Education, Health and Culture, Media and Sport.

Eligible schools

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 school’s census in January of the preceding academic year.

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.

Accountability

Since September 2013, schools have been held to account over how they spend their additional, funding. Ofsted have strengthened the coverage of PE and sport within the ‘Inspectors’ handbook’ and supporting guidance so that both schools and inspectors know how sport and PE is assessed as part of the school’s overall provision.

Physical Education – Aims and Objectives

Physical education develops the children’s knowledge, skills and understanding, so that they can perform with increasing competence and confidence in a range of physical activities. These include dance, games, gymnastics, swimming and water safety, athletics and outdoor adventure activities.

Physical education promotes an understanding in children of their bodies in action. It involves thinking, selecting and applying skills and promotes positive attitudes towards a healthy lifestyle. Thus we enable them to make informed choices about physical activity throughout their lives. The aims of PE are:

• to enable children to develop and explore physical skills with increasing control and coordination;
• to encourage children to work and play with others in a range of group situations;
• to develop the way children perform skills and apply rules and conventions for different activities;
• to increase children’s ability to use what they have learnt to improve the quality and control of their performance;
• to teach children to recognise and describe how their bodies feel during exercise;
• to develop the children’s enjoyment of physical activity through creativity and imagination;
• to develop an understanding in children of how to succeed in a range of physical activities and how to evaluate their own success;
• to increase participation rates in school and outside of school.