PE and sport premium for primary schools

About the PE and sport premium

All children and young people should live healthy active lives. The UK Chief Medical Officers recommend that all children and young people should take part in moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity for at least 60 minutes every day. Children with special educational needs and disabilities should take part in 20 minutes of daily activity.

The Childhood Obesity Plan says that at least 30 minutes of daily activity should take place in schools.

Schools have a key role to play in achieving this aim. This is particularly true of primary schools where the foundations of positive and enjoyable participation in regular physical activity are embedded. All children should have equal access to high-quality PE provision and opportunities to experience and participate in a wide range of sports and physical activities. Academic achievement can improve in school because of the benefits children can gain.

Schools should use the PE and sport premium funding to help achieve these aims. It must not be used for core-type school activities. They should use it to make additional and sustainable improvements to the PE, sport and physical activity they provide, such as:

• funding high-quality PE and sport for at least 2 hours a week, complemented by a wide range of extracurricular sport and competitive opportunities
• providing or improving equal access to sport for boys and girls

Schools should prioritise PE and sport premium spending to improve in the following 5 key areas:

• increasing all staff’s confidence, knowledge and skills in teaching PE and sport
• increasing engagement of all pupils in regular physical activity and sport
• raising the profile of PE and sport across the school, to support whole school improvement
• offer a broader and more equal experience of a range of sports and physical activities to all pupils
• increase participation in competitive sport

Eligibility

Most schools with primary-age pupils receive the PE and sport premium. The exceptions are:

• nursery schools
• studio schools
• university technical colleges
• independent schools, except for non-maintained special schools

How funding is calculated and the amounts payable for 2023 to 2024

Schools receive PE and sport premium funding based on the number of pupils they have in years 1 to 6. In cases where schools may not have set year groups (for example, in some special schools), pupils aged 5 to 10 attract the funding.

In most cases, we determine funding by using data from the January 2023 school census. For a new school, or a school teaching eligible pupils for the first time in the academic year 2023 to 2024, funding is based on data from the autumn 2023 school census.

For the year 2023 to 2024, the amounts payable will be:

• schools with 16 or fewer eligible pupils will receive £1,000 per pupil
• schools with 17 or more eligible pupils will receive £16,000 and an additional payment of £10 per pupil

Payment dates for 2023 to 2024

Maintained schools, including PRUs and general hospitals

Maintained schools, including pupil referral units (PRUs) and general hospitals, do not receive funding directly from the Department for Education (DfE). We give the funding to the local authority and they pass it on to the school.

We give local authorities PE and sport premium funding for maintained schools in 2 separate payments. They will receive:

• 7/12 of the funding allocation inon 31 October 2023
• 5/12 of the funding allocation inon 30 April 2024

For a new maintained school or for a school that is teaching eligible pupils for the first time in the 2023 to 2024 academic year, local authorities will receive:

• 7/12 of the school’s funding allocation inon 29 February 2024
• 5/12 of the school’s funding allocation inon 30 April 2024

Academies,Academies and free schools and city technology colleges

We send academies (including free schools) and city technology colleges the PE and sport premium funding in 2 separate payments. They will receive:

• 7/12 of the funding allocation inon 8 November 2023
• 5/12 of the funding allocation inon April8 March 2024

An academy (including a free school) or city technology college which is new, or teaching eligible pupils for the first time in the 2023 to 2024 academic year, will receive:

• 7/12 of the funding allocation inon April8 March 2024
• 5/12 of the funding allocation inon 8 May 2024

Non-maintained special schools

We send non-maintained special schools the PE and sport premium funding in 2 separate payments. They will receive:

• 7/12 of the funding allocation inon November18 December 2023
• 5/12 of the funding allocation inion 18 April 2024

Using the PE and sport premium

Any use of the PE and sport premium must be in accordance with the terms outlined in the conditions of grant document. This means schools must use the PE and sport premium to:

• build capacity and capability in the school and make sure that improvements made to the quality of PE, sport and physical activity provision now are sustainable and will benefit pupils joining the school in future
• develop or add to the PE, sport and physical activity that the school provides

Continued professional development

Schools should see the continued professional development (CPD) of teachers as a key priority to make sure that the future quality of the teaching of PE, sport and physical activity is sustainable. This includes providing staff with:

• professional development
• mentoring
• appropriate training
• access to external resources

We recommend that schools use established quality assured local, regional and national subject-specific and suitably qualified CPD providers.

Schools should monitor and assess the effectiveness of the CPD being provided to make sure that it is up to standard.

Other effective ways to spend the premium

Schools can also:

• embed physical activity into the school day by encouraging active travel to and from school and having active break times
• provide targeted activities or support to involve and encourage the least active children
• help to provide equal access for all pupils to the range of sports and physical activities that the school offers

Schools can also use the PE and sport premium to raise attainment in primary school swimming and water safety by funding top-up swimming sessions for those pupils that do not meet national curriculum requirements after they’ve completed core swimming lessons.

Sustainability

Achieving sustainable outcomes is key to any spending of the PE and sport premium.

Before making any decision on what the funding should be used for, schools (in particular, governors and trustees) should consider how the spending will benefit future pupils and what the lasting legacy of this spending will be.

Schools should focus their efforts on upskilling the whole staff workforce so that they feel confident and able to lead a PE lesson independently.

Use of external coaches

Schools may wish to engage the expertise of external coaches to offer their pupils a wider variety of sports. Governing bodies, trustees or proprietors should seek assurance that providers have appropriate safeguarding and child protection policies and procedures in place, including inspecting these as needed.

We do not expect:

• these coaches to replace the need for the primary teaching staff
• schools to use the grant to fund annually repeated coach-led initiatives

Spending in an academic year

Schools must spend the PE and sport premium funding in full for the benefit of the pupils attending the school within the academic year it has been allocated for. Funding should not be allocated to only benefit a certain year group.

Schools cannot roll over any unused funding into the following academic year. They must spend the funding before 31 July 2024 so it can be accounted for in:

• the school’s published online report
• the new digital PE and sport premium reporting tool (once in place)

What the PE and sport premium should not be used for

Funding must not be used for:

• capital expenditure (except for goods within the de minimis value for purchases set by the school)
• employing coaches or specialist teachers to cover planning preparation and assessment arrangements (this should be funded from the school’s core staffing budgets)
• teaching the minimum requirements of the national curriculum or, for academies, the existing PE curriculum – apart from top-up swimming lessons after pupils have completed core lessons. Teaching the curriculum should be funded through the school’s core funding
• buying services that will be delivered or used in following academic years (this includes paying for invoices and subscriptions in advance)
• goods that exceed the de minimis (lowest) value for purchases set by the school
• buying staff PE kit

Examples of what comes under capital expenditure include:

• multi-use games areas and Daily Mile tracks
• Forest School environments and Trim Trails
• buying vehicles
• fixed playground equipment, such as climbing frames
• trophy cabinets or similar

Examples of what schools should pay for from their staffing budget include:

• subsidising core staffing, such as PE subject leaders or external coaches who are engaged in repeated annual initiatives
• funding the cost of a teaching assistant or apprentice to deliver PE lessons instead of primary teaching staff

Schools receive separate funding for the national PE curriculum. An example that falls under this is swimming and water safety lessons and any associated costs, other than additional top-up lessons for pupils who have not been able to meet the national curriculum requirements.

Defining capital expenditure

Schools can only use PE and sport premium funding for revenue expenditure. If you’re not sure whether a particular cost can be classified as revenue expenditure, ask for local professional advice. We cannot provide individual advice on this.

Capital expenditure for the purposes of this grant funding is defined as: ‘The purchase of an asset (tangible or intangible), or expenditure which adds to/enhances and not merely maintains the value of an existing asset.’

For expenditure to be treated as capital, the asset must:

• be used for more than one year
• be above the school’s (local authority’s or trust’s) de minimis threshold for recognition of assets to its balance sheet - this can include:
  • individual assets worth over the de minimis threshold
  • grouped assets, that is assets of a similar nature that the school buys at the same time, which cost more than the de minimis threshold
  • bulked assets, for example a bulk purchase of equipment where the value of the individual item is below the set value, which cost more overall than the de minimis threshold
• increase the useful life, performance or value of the asset

If the spending would trigger asset recognition for the school or local authority, under your own local accounting policy, the spending would not be eligible to be funded through this grant.

Schools can use grant funds to maintain existing assets because the funding can be used towards maintenance costs. For example, repainting lines on the playground is allowable as the playground should already be recognised as an asset, and the cost of repainting lines on it is a revenue maintenance cost.

Accountability and reporting

Schools are accountable for how they use the PE and sport premium funding allocated to them. The school’s senior leadership team should make sure that the funding is spent for the purpose it has been provided - that is to make additional and sustainable improvements to the PE, sport and physical activity offered.

As part of their role, governors and academy trustees should monitor how the funding is being spent and determine how it fits into school improvement plans and assess the impact it is having on pupils.

Schools, local authorities and academy proprietors must follow the terms set out in the conditions of grant document. If a school, local authority or academy proprietor fails to comply with these terms, the Secretary of State may require the school to repay all or any part of the premium paid.

As part of the conditions of grant,grant, schools must publish a report detailing how they have spent their PE and sport premium funding allocation on their school website by 31 July 2024.

Reports must include:

• the amount of PE and sport premium received
• a full breakdown of how it has been spent, including justifying any additional costs incurred and describing:
  • the measurable impact that the school has seen on pupils’ PE attainment, physical activity and sport participation due to the spending
  • how the spend will be sustainable in the future

Schools must also publish the percentage of pupils within its year 6 cohort in the 2023 to 2024 academic year who met the national curriculum swimming and water safety requirements. We collect this as part of a school’s PE and sport premium reporting requirements even though the funding can only be used to provide additional support for pupils failing to meet the curriculum standards.

Schools should provide attainment data for year 6 pupils from their most recent swimming lessons. This may be data from previous years, depending on the swimming programme at the school. Schools must keep attainment data from swimming lessons in years 3 to 5 to be able to report this accurately in year 6.

To help schools plan, monitor and report on the impact of their spending, partners in the PE and school sport sector have developed a planning tool and a recording template. These are on the Association for PE and Youth Sport Trust websites. We recommend that schools use these to plan and record how they use the PE and sport premium throughout the year, to be ready to publish the report at the end of the school year.

Review of online reports

We’ll continue to monitor published reports. We’ll look at a selection of reports to confirm that the use of the PE and sport premium described in the report meets the requirements outlined within this guidance and the conditions of grant document.

If we identify concerns or discrepancies, we’ll contact the school to address and investigate these fully. If any concerns are confirmed, we’ll take appropriate and proportionate action against the school, which may include action to recover funding.

Digital tool

We’ll be introducing a new digital PE and sport premium reporting tool for schools. This digital tool will capture details on how a school has used its PE and sport premium and the impact it has had on achieving the aims and objectives of the funding.

The information gathered will include:

• figures on the overall spend
• what the funding has been spent on
• whether there is any unspent funding
• swimming and water safety attainment

We’ll pilot the digital tool for the academic year 2023 to 2024. It will be a mandatory requirement for schools to complete it from the 2024 to 2025 academic year.

The digital tool will provide a further measure of accountability and will help identify any non-compliant spending of the PE and sport premium. We intend to launch the tool in May or June 2024. We’ll send information to schools closer to this date, including details of training sessions on how to complete the digital form.

Further guidance

You can get further guidance at:

• Youth Sport Trust - primary PE and sport premium
• Association for PE - advice on the PE premium
• Sport England - advice on using the PE and sport premium effectively
• Swim England - advice and resources on primary school swimming and water safety
• DfE teacher blog - best practice examples of how schools are using their premium effectively
• National Governance Association guidance - use of the PE and sport premium and how governing boards can influence and support the planning and delivery of PE, as well as physical activity and sport, and monitor the impact
• Active Partnership - further advice on how best to use the PE and sport premium

Other helpful guidance documents are:

• keeping children safe in education - statutory guidance for schools and colleges on safeguarding children and safer recruitment
• keeping children safe in out-of-school settings - information for providers, parents and carers on keeping children safe in community activities, after school clubs, tuition, sports training and other out of school settings