School sport funding secured for extra year

Chancellor George Osborne confirmed in his autumn statement yesterday that the government has extended its £150m per year funding for school by one year until 2016.

The government first announced the £150m annual fund in March this year, with an initial pledge to secure the funding until 2015.

There will be no change to the way the money is distributed, so the amount of money each school will receive will continue to be calculated by the number of primary-aged pupils and schools will have to spend the money on improving their provision of PE and sport.

Schools are free to spend the money on hiring specialist PE teachers or qualified sports coaches to work alongside primary teachers as well as paying for professional development opportunities in PE/sport.

Tim Lamb, CEO of the Sport and Recreation Alliance, said: "This is good news for school sport. It gives schools and sport providers a clearer focus, sense of stability and incentive to make the pupil premium funding work.

" While this is a step in the right direction, however, what we really need is a longer term, say, ten year strategy for school sport - which would allow schools to deliver quality PE and sport provision regardless of what party is in power or what their priorities at the time might be."