For children, schools provide the most accessible, and sometimes only opportunity for regular, structured play, physical education, physical activity, and sports.
And with so many children still learning from home, dropping in and out of self isolation, the opportunity for physical activity can become even more diminished.
During the first lockdown, only 19% of children met the recommended 1 hour of physical activity per day.
20% of inactive children stated that not going to school has reduced opportunities to be active.
Therefore the importance of providing opportunities and keeping pupils activity levels up within school should fall high on schools agendas.
To help schools effective spend there sport premium, Association for Physical Education (afPE) have recently released 'Covid-19 and school funding: 7 top tips for spending the Primary PE and Sport Premium'
Below, we have outlined the Tips that we can directly help you to action:
Sustainability
It may currently be difficult to bring in external providers to support PE lessons and sports clubs so it is of paramount importance that existing staff are qualified, competent and confident to deliver high quality PE and physical activity opportunities. If coaches continue to assist with staff training and enhance the extra-curricular offer, this work should be comprehensively risk assessed and in line with locally agreed policies.
TOP TIPS: Look for CPD opportunities linked to Physical Education delivery, whole school physically active learning strategies or outdoor learning initiatives. Try to invest in CPD that aims to address staff motivations and relationships with physical activity rather than simply upskilling staff in technical aspects of traditional sporting activities.
Option to Action:
We recognise that teachers are highly skilled and experts in the classroom. The curriculum support programme helps your teachers transfer their skills from the classroom and into the PE environment. As a result, your staff will become more confident and develop a greater depth of knowledge, which in turn, will enable them to plan, teach and assess PE to a high standard and improve outcomes for your pupils.
Whole School Improvement
The impact of PE and physical activity on a wide range of school priorities is well researched and extends to improvements in concentration, memory retention and behaviour in general. In order to leave a legacy, the PE and Sport Premium grant should impact on far more than just pupils’ physical health but also be used as a resource that can be a driver for whole school improvement.
TOP TIPS: Look at your whole school improvement plan; identify any areas where PE, school sport or physical activity can positively impact on targeted pupils or outcomes such as academic attainment, behaviour or attendance. This can be achieved by embedding successful physically active learning approaches such as Active Maths, Active Phonics or Cross Curricular Orienteering.
Option to Action:
Using physically active learning, Maths on the Move (MOTM) enhances children’s confidence and attainment in maths.
✔ Covers the entire KS1 and KS2 of the national curriculum for maths.
✔ Suitable for all abilities and can tailor to pupil needs.
✔ 80.1% of children felt more confident in maths and 93% of scores increased pre to post lesson last academic year (2019-20).
By embedding physical activity into the school day, MOTM contributes to those essential 60 minutes children need a day and raises the profile of PE and sport across the school as a tool for whole-school improvement.
Active Travel
With more people working from home since lockdown there is an opportunity to advocate leaving cars at home and walking, scooting or cycling to school instead. We have also seen an increase in families walking together to school. There is a great opportunity now for schools to build on this trend by promoting active travel amongst pupils and their families.
TOP TIPS: Use your PE and Sport Premium to invest in cycle training for pupils across the school. Consider purchasing storage facilities for bikes or scooters. Make active travel an easy option for families by ensuring the school grounds are accessible by bikes and scooters. Look to research and invest in proven schemes that reward children for travelling to and from school in an active way.
Option to Action
Balance-ability is the UK's first accredited 'learn to cycle' programme for children aged 2½ to 6 years old.
The programme is a structured course that combines unique ergonomic balance bikes with a schedule of fun activities that build confidence, spatial awareness and dynamic balance skills enabling young children to cycle without ever needing stabilisers.
Balance-ability progresses directly to Bike-ability, where children must be able to ride a bike to take part.
We truly believe that high quality physical activity is the key to happy, healthy and inspired children, now more so than ever.
We hope we've given you some ideas on how you can spend your sport premium funding effectively, if you would like to have set up a meeting or just have a chat about any of the above programmes, please give us a call on 0121 965 1394 and we will be happy to help 😊
Keeping the next generation of learners healthy, active and engaged.
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