PE & Sport Premium For Primary Schools- How Best To Spend It
Department for Education has released details of the PE and Sport Premium for Primary Schools, how much funding schools receive in the academic year 2017 to 2018 including advice on how to spend it. Most primary schools, including schools maintained by the local authority, academies, free schools, special schools and non-maintained schools, receive funding based on the number of pupils who attend the school. With the second payment due in March or April depending on the type of school, head teachers, heads of department, business managers and bursars are having to make decisions on how best to spend their allocated funding.
The DfE has issued guidelines on how schools have to use the and sport premium stating: “Schools must use the funding to make additional and sustainable improvements to the quality of PE and sport you offer.” The premium should be used to develop or enhance current facilities to build capacity and capability in the long term. Ofsted will be assessing how schools use the premium and a full breakdown of how the funding was spent must be published. Schools are expected to increase sport engagement and offer a broader range of sports and activities – children and young people aged 5 to 18 should engage in a minimum of 60 minutes of physical activity a day, of which 30 minutes should be in schools. The starting point for good PE and sports provision is providing excellent facilities, starting with good quality, safe sports floor.
Many older activity floors in primary schools may have safety and performance levels which are significantly below what is currently recommended for use in schools. A multi-use sports floor system from Junckers complies with the European EN 14904 standard for both Category A3 and A4 systems, combining safety with outstanding ball response and ease of installation. A new sports floor may be more of an investment, but when you consider that the lifecycle costs of a Junckers floor are second to none, it soon becomes clear it is money well spent. A Junckers solid hardwood sports floor can be sanded and re-finished eight to ten times during its life therefore a typical lifespan of 60 years will comfortably be exceeded. In the past 12 months, on the recommendation of Sport England, the Education and Skills Funding Agency has changed its specification guideline for Affordable Sports Flooring to include Area Elastic Floors (solid hardwood, fully sprung floors) only, having identified Point Elastic Floors (e.g. vinyl flooring) as inadequate.
Another option to improve existing facilities would be to refurbish the existing sports floor; a relatively quick and easy way to make a big improvement and with new methods available, it is possible to undertake the work during term time.
Our sports floors are being put to good use on a daily basis in thousands of schools, a sheer testament to their quality and performance – money well spent!
