What is the Sports Premium?
This Government funding was jointly provided by the Department for Education, Department for Health and Culture, Media and Sport, to see money going directly to primary schools to spend on improving the quality of sport and PE for all their children.
The sport funding was “ring-fenced” so that it could only be spent on sport and PE provision in schools.
The aims of the funding were to ensure children had opportunities to:
- Lead healthy lifestyles
- Enjoy Physical Education and sport in schools
- Experience high quality Physical Education and sport
- Compete against their peers
- Achieve sporting excellence
Purpose of funding
Schools have to spend the sport funding on improving their provision of PE and sport and also have to build capacity and capability within the school to ensure that improvements made now will benefit pupils joining the school in future years.
There are also now 5 key indicators that school should expect to see improvement across:
- the engagement of all pupils in regular physical activity – the Chief Medical Officer guidelines recommend that all children and young people aged 5 to 18 engage in at least 60 minutes of physical activity a day, of which 30 minutes should be in school
- the profile of PE and sport is raised across the school as a tool for whole-school improvement
- increased confidence, knowledge and skills of all staff in teaching PE and sport
- broader experience of a range of sports and activities offered to all pupils
- increased participation in competitive sport
Possible uses for the funding still include:
- Hiring specialist PE teachers or qualified sports coaches to work alongside primary teachers when teaching PE
- New or additional Change4Life sport club
- Paying for professional development opportunities in PE/sport.
- Providing cover to release primary teachers for professional development in PE/sport
- Running sport competitions, or increasing participation in the school games.
- Buying quality assured professional development modules or materials for PE/sport
- Providing places for pupils on after school sport clubs and holiday clubs.
Other uses have also been added:
- Encourage pupils to take on leadership or volunteer roles that support sport and physical activity within the school
- Provide additional swimming provision targeted to pupils not able to meet the swimming requirements of the national curriculum
- Embed physical activity into the school day through active travel to and from school, active playgrounds and active teaching
Accountability
Schools are still held to account over how they spend the additional funding. Ofsted will assess how primary schools use the primary PE and sport premium. They will measure its impact on pupil outcomes, and how effectively governors hold school leaders to account for this.
Online reporting
Schools must publish details of how they spend their PE and sport premium funding. This must include:
- the amount of premium received
- a full breakdown of how it has been spent (or will be spent)
- the impact the school has seen on pupils’ PE and sport participation and attainment
- how the improvements will be sustainable in the future
Schools must also publish how many pupils within their year 6 cohort are meeting the national curriculum requirement to swim competently, confidently and proficiently over a distance of at least 25 metres, use a range of strokes effectively and perform safe self-rescue in different water-based situations.
PE and Sports Premium Grant 25-26
[gview file=”https://cdn.realsmart.co.uk/forestview/uploads/2026/07/14120023/Website-PE-and-Sport-Premium-Grant-Expenditure.pdf”]