Your Guide to Using Your School's Sports Premium

There are many publicised ways in which funding is being cut for certain elements for schools within the UK. However, there are pockets of funding that are specially created for those who are well-informed in relation to the requirements and funding process.

Therefore, the following guide has been put together in order to better understand Sports Premium, its best uses and advice on getting started. All of which will leave you well-informed and in the best position to gain valuable and likely much-needed funding support for your school.

It was recently announced by the UK Department for Education that all primary schools will receive an increase to the Primary PE & Sports Premium. Further information detailed that the additional funding essentially doubles individual pupil funding allocations. Why? The intention was that every primary school will be able to improve its PE and Sport provision. This confirms their commitment to our children's physical education services.

The plan was made effective as of the 2017/2018 academic year. Furthermore, the Government has pledged a commitment to continue this funding until at least 2020.

This leads us onto outline what your school may actually get. Schools with sixteen or fewer eligible pupils will receive £1000 per pupil. However, schools with seventeen or more eligible pupils will receive £16,000 plus an additional payment of £10 per pupil. Additional information regarding payment mechanisms were made available in October 2017 and are available upon request.

The following information discusses the funding facts to ensure that you are in the best position to meet the criteria restrictions and requirements. There are essentially three key areas that you need to consider. These include introducing new sports or activities for children, creating more extra-curricular activities and enabling teachers to improve their skill set.

Ideas that meet the Government's requirements include offering teacher training, hiring qualified sports coaches to work with teachers, the improvement of resources to help teach PE and sport more effectively and the introduction of new sports or activities that encourage more children to partake in sports activities. Further ideas include the extension of after school sports clubs for the children in your school classed as the least active, staged sports competitions and the organisation of inter-school sports activities. This shows the depths to which the funding can be used.

However, there are elements of the funding that are not allowed and will not be supported. This includes the employment of coaches to cover planning preparation or assessment arrangements, teaching the minimum requirements of the national curriculum or, in the case of academies and free schools, teaching your existing PE curriculum.

In summary, to be eligible your school must implement 'sustainable improvements to the provision of physical education and sport'. While there are restrictions in relation to the way in which the funding can be used, the truth is that it has been carefully considered so that it is used to improve both sort-term and long-term sporting programmes.