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Sport Nottinghamshire launch training package to improve School Sport

This week saw Sport Nottinghamshire the County Sports Partnership for Nottinghamshire launch a comprehensive training package designed to support primary school teachers in raising the standard of provision for school sport. The resource has been produced in consultation with headteachers, partners and subject co-ordinators.

Rob Cook the Youth Sport Manager at Sport Nottinghamshire said:

“We hope that by bringing together the expertise within the sports and education sectors that the new training package will act as a catalyst for raising the quality of school sport within primary schools. We have had a high level of interest so far and are currently in the process of developing our relationships and responding to the different needs of the local schools. I would like to encourage other primary schools to talk to us about these packages which will be supported by a variety of continuing professional development events across the county”

The training package has been launched partly in response to comments made recently at a Youth Sport Trust conference, by Baroness Sue Campbell who is Head of UK Sport and chair of the Youth Sport Trust. She said:

“Primary school head teachers are failing to provide pupils with high quality PE and sports skills and are instead happy to just see children running around, making lots of noise. Secondary schools were beginning to realise the potential beneficial effects that PE and sport could have on their pupils, but criticised primaries for lagging behind.”

These sentiments were also reflected in a recent OFSTED report which voiced concerns about the quality of primary school sport.

To further support the development of high quality sports provision within primary schools the government announced in March that additional funding of £150 million per annum for academic years 2013 to 2014 and 2014 to 2015 will be made available to improve provision of physical education (PE) and sport in primary schools. 

This funding - provided jointly by the Departments for Education, Health and Culture, Media and Sport - will be allocated to primary school headteachers. This funding is ring-fenced and therefore can only be spent on provision of PE and sport in schools. 

The funding equates to approximately £8000 per school and to support the schools within Nottinghamshire to get maximum value for money Sport Nottinghamshire have also put together a locally focused guide which can be downloaded here.

You can view the ‘Making it Count’ CPD package here or contact Rob on rob.cook@ntu.ac.uk