Primary PE & Sport Premium
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Young children running through cones during PE lesson

Overview of Primary PE & Sport Premium

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

Five key indicators from the DfE

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

  1. increasing all staff’s confidence, knowledge and skills in teaching PE and sport
  2. increasing engagement of all pupils in regular physical activity and sport - the Chief Medical Officer guidelines recommend that all children and young people aged five to 18 engage in at least 60 minutes of physical activity a day, of which 30
  3. raising the profile of PE and sport across the school, to support whole school improvement
  4. offer a broader and more equal experience of a range of sports and physical activities to all pupils
  5. increase participation in competitive sport

Active School Membership provides support to achieve the five key indicators set out by the Department for Education. 

The Department for Education provides further guidance on spending and reporting of this funding. You can read the original government advice on the Primary Sport and PE Premium for 2023 - 24, including confirmation that unused Premium from the 2023-24 academic year cannot be carried forward beyond July 2024 and new digital reporting tool, which will be mandatory in 2024-25.

Watch a series of short films offering a comprehensive guide to all aspects of physical activity in primary schools and maximising the use of primary PE and sport premium. These films were produced by Sport England, in collaboration with National Partners.

Other useful resources:

The Association for Physical Education (afPE) publish a wide range of high quality resources covering physical education and school sport.

They also have examples of how schools have successfully used the Primary Premium to improve what they offer pupils, which you can read more about in these national case studies