Sports Premium 

Physical Education

Here at Thornden Wood, all members of our staff and the Governing body believe in the importance of developing pupils’ physical competence and confidence across a range of activities. We believe all young people should have the opportunity to live healthy and active lives and that a positive experience of sport and physical activity at a young age can build a lifetime habit of participation.

 Physical activity has numerous benefits for children and young people’s physical health, as well as their mental wellbeing (increasing self-esteem and emotional wellbeing and lowering anxiety and depression). Children who are physically active are happier, more resilient and more trusting of their peers. Ensuring that pupils have access to sufficient daily activity can also have wider benefits for pupils and schools, improving behaviour as well as enhancing academic achievement.

 Funding

 The School Sport and Activity Action Plan set out government’s commitment to ensuring that children and young people have access to at least 60 minutes of sport and physical activity per day, with a recommendation of 30 minutes of this delivered during the school day (in line with the Chief Medical Officer guidelines which recommend an average of at least 60 minutes per day across the week).

 The PE and Sport Premium can help primary schools to achieve this aim, providing primary schools with £320m of government funding to make additional and sustainable improvements to the quality of the PE, physical activity and sport offered through their core budgets. It is allocated directly to schools so they have the flexibility to use it in the way that works best for their pupils. The PE and Sport Premium survey highlighted the significant impact which PE and Sport has had in many primary schools across England.

  How to use the PE and Sport Premium

Schools must use the funding to make additional and sustainable improvements to the quality of their physical education (PE), physical activity and sport.

 This means that you should use the premium to: 

• develop or add to the PE, physical activity and sport that your school provides 

• build capacity and capability within the school to ensure that improvements made now will benefit pupils joining the school in future years

 Schools should use the premium to secure improvements in the following 5 key indicators.

 Engagement of all pupils in regular physical activity, for example by: 

• providing targeted activities or support to involve and encourage the least active children 

• encouraging active play during break times and lunchtimes 

• establishing, extending or funding attendance of school sport clubs and activities and holiday clubs, or broadening the variety offered
• adopting an active mile initiative 

• raising attainment in primary school swimming to meet requirements of the national curriculum before the end of key stage 2. Every child should leave primary school able to swim

We aim to raise the profile of PE and sport across the school as a tool for whole school improvement, for example by: 

• encouraging pupils to take on leadership or volunteer roles that support sport and physical activity within the school (such as ‘sport leader’ or peer-mentoring schemes) 

• embedding physical activity into the school day through active travel to and from school, active break times and active lessons and teaching
• developing links with local sports clubs and organisations to inspire pupils, provide positive role models and create pathways for ongoing participation beyond school

We aim to continue to increase the confidence, knowledge and skills of all staff in teaching PE and sport, by: 

• providing staff with professional development, mentoring, training and resources to help them teach PE and sport more effectively to all pupils, and embed physical activity across the school
• implementing a consistent, progressive scheme of learning in PE to support staff in delivering high‑quality lessons and to ensure clear progression of skills and knowledge across all year groups.

We will continue to broaden the experience of a range of sports and activities offered to all pupils, by: 

• introducing new sports and physical activities to encourage more pupils to take up sport and physical activities 

• partnering with other schools to run sport activities and clubs 

• providing more (or broadening the variety of) extra-curricular activities after school in the 3 to 6pm window, delivered by the school or other local sport organisations

We aim to increase the participation in competitive sport, by: 

• increasing pupils’ participation in the School Games 

• organising, coordinating or entering more sport competitions or tournaments within the school or across the local area, including those run by sporting organisations.