How To Spend Your Primary PE and Sport Premium Effectively

This post was last updated in May 2024.

In 2023, the Department for Education pledged over £600 million across 2023-2024 & 2024-2025 for the continued Primary PE and Sport Premium. This funding is specifically for Primary Schools to improve the quality of their PE and sports and help children benefit from regular activity. Included in this package is a futher £11 million towards the continuation of the School Games programme - allowing young children the chance to participate in competitive sport. New for 2023-2024 and continuing as mandatory into 2024-2025 is the new digital reporting tool. Launching in May/June of 2024, this tool will act as a measure of accountability and identify non-compliance. Schools will receive details of training sessions around this time to support them on the use of this new tool.

Are you spending your premium effectively?

Offering a broad range of PE activities in your school is is essential. It not only encourages all children to participate in some form of physical activity but also gives new opportunities to those who are less active. Promote a healthy and active lifestyle by enhancing your PE and sport resources.

Before you spend your Primary PE and Sport Premium, you need to decide what the most effective way of using it will be. Create a plan of action, set goals and objectives and plan out a timeline of activities. This will help you decide how you are going to monitor the progress to make sure that you are prepared for the Ofsted assessments.

Key elements to consider when planning your activities:

• How can you enhance the PE and sport activities that you currently offer? What PE resources and equipment can you add to your school to improve your current selection?
• Do you need to offer more staff training and mentoring to increase their confidence when teaching PE and sports?
• Do you need to hire external qualified sports coaches to work with your teachers?
• How will you embed physical activity into the school day? How are you going to carry out active learning in the classroom?
• Have you considered partnering with other schools to run sports activities and clubs?
• How will you support the least active children? Will you offer targeted activities for them?
• Do you actively encourage your pupils to walk or cycle to and from school?
• How will you encourage more children to participate in competitive sport?
• How often do you run school games and competitions?
• Are your pupils well informed about the after school sports opportunities that your school offers?
• Do you offer sports leadership or volunteer roles to the pupils to support physical activity?
• Does your playground or outdoor area promote physical activity during break time?

When looking for PE and sports supplies, it is essential that you think about how the resources and equipment will benefit your school!

Key factors to consider when spending your PE Premium:

• Will it enhance your current selection of PE and sports activities?
• Will it impact the school’s future? Is it sustainable?
• Will it broaden your school’s PE and sports range? Does it offer new opportunities to pupils?
• How will the children benefit from it?
• Will it have a positive impact on the children's physical and mental development?
• How will it impact the children’s attainment?
• Will children to engage in more physical activity?
• Will it promote active learning in your school?
• How will it contribute to the curriculum as a whole?
• Will this encourage children to participate in competitive sports?
• Will it help to raise the profile of PE and sports across the school as a tool for whole-school improvement?

Make sure you do NOT use your funding to:

• Employ coaches or specialist teachers to cover planning preparation and assessment (PPA) arrangements – these should come out of your core staffing budgets.
• Teach the minimum requirements of the national curriculum – including those specified for swimming (or, in the case of academies and free schools, to teach your existing PE curriculum).

What can you spend your Primary PE and Sport Premium on?

When spending your premium, you need to make sure that you adhere to the key factors above. Developing or adding to the PE and sports activities in your school is crucial, as is building on the capacity and capability for the school’s future.

We stock an extensive selection of children’s PE & Sports Equipment for primary schools. This has been carefully designed to promote health and fitness and encourage physical activity. Our PE and sports selection includes a wide variety of resources and equipment for competitive sports, inclusive sports, sports day games, dance, movement, active play and much more!

Browse our fantastic PE & Sports range to ensure that you offer a broad range of activities in your school. This will improve your PE and sports offerings and enhance physical development. Don’t forget to provide evidence for how you are improving the provision of PE and sport in your school. If you are unsure how it will benefit, we are happy to help!

Let us know how you are planning to increase the children’s physical activity and develop the PE and sports in your school via our Facebook or Twitter!

Looking for Activity ideas?

Head to our blog post: 10 Physical Activities for Children in Primary School for some inspiration!

For more advice and information on the Primary PE and Sport Premium, visit GOV.UK and Youth Sport Trust.