Asked by: Lord Moynihan (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government (1) whether they will publish their analysis of the impact of the introduction of the Sport Premium on promotion of the provision of physical education in primary schools and the details of how they have held primary schools accountable for spending the Sport Premium; (2) how many primary schools have benefited from the Sport Premium; and (3) whether they will list those schools which have failed to meet their guidelines for funding.
Answered by Lord Nash
Through the primary physical education (PE) and sport premium, the Department for Education is providing over £450 million of ring-fenced funding across three academic years, until academic year 2015/16, to improve PE and sport. The independent research company, NatCen, is evaluating the impact, and assessing schools’ use of the premium. A research brief was published in September 2014, reporting an improvement in PE teaching in over 90% of cases. The interim report is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pe-and-sport-premium-an-investigation-in-primary-schools, and the full report will be published in autumn 2015.
Schools are held accountable for the way in which they spend their funding through Ofsted whole-school inspections. They are required to publish online reports detailing their spending plans and the impact of the primary PE and sport premium. Ofsted has strengthened its coverage of PE and sport, to ensure that all primary school inspections report on the extent to which the school is effectively using the premium to improve the quality and breadth of PE and sport provision.
The premium has been allocated to approximately 18,000 schools in academic year 2014/15. Information on the extent to which individual schools meet the conditions of the premium will be made public through Ofsted’s reporting on schools following section five inspections.
Asked by: Lord Moynihan (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the Olympic and Paralympic legacy for school sport in 2013 and 2014.
Answered by Lord Nash
The Government has committed over £450 million of ring-fenced funding, until academic year 2015/16, to the improvement of primary physical education (PE) and sport. The funding goes directly to primary schools for head teachers to spend in the way that best meets the needs of their students. They can choose to use the funding to provide new or additional sports activities and hire qualified sports coaches to work alongside teachers.
Our independent evaluation showed that more than two thirds of schools have increased the number of sports offered during lessons and in after school clubs. Over 80% of schools reported an increase in pupil engagement in PE and after school sports clubs compared with the year prior to the introduction of the premium.
We have expanded the School Games, with 18,985 schools participating in 2013/14, including over 13,000 primary schools. The number of disabled participants has increased each year, reaching 28,786 in the 2013/14 Level 3 County Festivals. The Department also continues to fund the Project Ability network which is aiming to increase sporting opportunities for young disabled people through a network of 49 hubs of excellence. More than 24,000 young disabled people have directly benefited.
PE remains a compulsory subject at all four key stages in the new national curriculum and there is a greater focus on competitive sport in PE lessons.