The Education Secretary has announced that schools in England will benefit from £320 million from the PE and Sport Premium. The PE and Sport Premium is designed to help children get an active start in life, supporting primary schools to improve the quality of their PE and sport provision so that pupils experience the benefits of regular exercise – from becoming healthier both mentally and physically to improved behaviour and better academic achievement.

The government have continued to recognise the importance of keeping active and how it benefits not just physical health but also children’s ability to pay attention and improvements in mood and mental health.

Here at Ireland Wood, PE and sport plays a very important role within the lives of our pupils. We believe that engaging them in physical activity is essential in their young lives and provides them with an excellent opportunity to develop socially and emotionally as well as understanding the importance of keeping active. We believe that competition in sport is very important and we encourage our pupils to win with pride, but to also lose graciously.

Our overall aim is to raise standards in P.E., school sport and physical activity increasing the participation and opportunities offered to our children. We aim to provide higher quality lessons and improved learning for all. The funding has been used primarily to employ a PE Specialist to work in school. Their role is to enhance and support the provision of PE and Sport within school including extra-curricular activities and inter and intra-school competitions and opportunities.

Here is a breakdown of our key development and targeted areas through the PE funding:

• Part time PE specialist
• Staff training
• Lunch time play leader
• Subsidies for events and competitions
• Equipment and resources

• PE Funding 2018-19
• PE Funding 2019-20
• PE Funding 2020-21
• PE Funding 2021-22
• PE Funding 2022-23
• PE Funding 2023-24