Impact of the 'Sports Premium'
The sports premium is specific funding designed to improve the provision of physical education (P.E) and sport in primary schools. It is allocated on the basis of a £8000 lump sum and an additional amount of £5 per pupil aged 5 to 11. The Ridge Primary School receives funding amounting to £9000. Schools must spend the additional funding on improving their provision of PE and sport, but has the freedom to choose how they do this.
At The Ridge Primary School we use our Sports Premium to focus on developing high quality teaching and learning in P.E and to increase the uptake of physical activity within and beyond the school day. From September 2015 to July 2016 we spent our Sports Premium funding on:
- A Sporting Chance' specialist P.E teacher to work alongside staff to support them with planning and delivering high quality lessons. Coaching and mentoring will focus on developing subject knowledge to facilitate good teaching (including differentiation) and assessment.
- Support specific provision for Gifted and Talented Pupils.
- Increase participation in a range of extra-curricular clubs, matches and tournaments, which includes the cover of staff to take children to competitions, as well as the transport from and to the venues.
- Purchase of equipment to support the teaching of gymnastics.
As part of our school improvement and evaluations, we looked into the impact which the Sports Premium funding has had for this year but also the previous years too. We considered the impact on the teaching staff, children, parent's views on P.E at The Ridge and the curriculum. We have also considered the next steps and recommendations moving forward.
Impact on Teaching Staff
- Increase in staff subject knowledge and confidence to deliver high quality P.E lessons including use of technical vocabulary.
- Increased understanding and confidence to assess children against what is below, expected and above in the different areas of P.E.
- Teaching staff now feel they have a better understanding of the teaching sequence of lessons but also sequence of progression through units, for example building upon skills in Netball to eventually lead to team games or competitive play.
- Wider understanding of the different resources which can be used to support teaching and how these can be used to differentiate and scaffold children's learning.
- Further ideas to model skills and areas of P.E to the children to ensure consolidation and application of skills.
- The understanding of the rules in games as well as areas of P.E has improved, especially where the teacher's subject knowledge and personal experience is limited; for example dodgeball, tennis and tri-golf.
Impact on Children
- Children are receiving more high quality P.E lessons twice a week due to increased staff confidence and subject knowledge.
- Due to increased staff understanding and knowledge, children's needs are being accommodated for all pupils from those who have SEN to those who are gifted and talented, whether through additional support from staff or more appropriate use of resources.
- A year 3 child expressed that they felt that "more children are involved in P.E and sports now" as there are more clubs to go to. More children, especially throughout Key Stage 2, have been children engaging more in after school sports clubs and activities; Currently (Summer 2016) 96 children are attending Sports after school clubs (45% of the current pupils on roll).
- There has been an increase in the amount of competitions and tournaments which we have been able to go to and therefore more opportunities for children to take part in competitive sports; Year 4 children expressed that in the past two years, there has been more competitions and also more variety in the competitions from gymnastics to dodgeball, swimming to tennis. A year 6 child stated that "we are now going to more and more competitions and the same ones every year now too. It means we are more competitive as we know what to expect". This was supported by a Year 4 child who highlighted, "that The Ridge previously had not taken part in a gymnastics competition for years, but last year we came 12th out of 24, which is good but this year we came 3rd out of 26th, which just shows how much more competitive we are!". So far this year, we have been to 7 competitions; for 3 of these competitions we have taken 3 'B' teams and one 'C' team.
- In terms of competitions, the children were enthusiastic that we were not only able to represent The Ridge but also the local area. This was evident in a tennis competition where the children won the Stourbridge competition and then were able to represent Stourbridge in the local competition at Tipton Harriers Sports academy where they came 2nd.
Impact on the Curriculum
- Due to increase in staff confidence and subject knowledge, there is now more variety in the P.E curriculum; this was identified by a Year 6 pupil who stated that "in P.E now, there is a wider variety of sports which we play such as dodgeball and tennis". In the academic year 2014-2015, our school was awarded a Bronze School Games Mark which is the first time our school has achieved an award like this for sports. This was followed in July 2016 by achievement of the Silver School Games award.
- A key aspect towards achieving the Silver award was to increase the number of children becoming Sports leaders. Although we had lunch time playleaders, the criteria states that schools must engage at least 10% of students in leading, managing and officiating School Games activity as well as planning and developing School Games activity. As a result, the P.E coordinator, with the help of our specialist P.E coach, organised for the children of Year 5 to take part in the Sports Leaders accredited award called the 'Playmaker award'. 16 children took part obtaining this award and are now certified Playmakers. This will continue as part of our Year 5 curriculum moving forward.
- As a result of the training of 16 playmaker sports leader, we have also been able to start our own Change4life club which is for children in Key Stage Two and also targets children who are not active outside of school or have a Special Educational Need. The aim of this Change4life club is to not only engage the children in physical activity and school sport but to also give the children the confidence and competence to take part in lifelong physical activity. Furthermore, it allows our playmakers to showcase and utilise their leadership skills they have acquired.
- The past few years there has been an increase in the amount of Sports after school clubs and variety of clubs run throughout the year. Throughout this current year, we have had a basketball club, gymnastics, rounders, athletics, multi-skills for both Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2, a new Change4life club led by Year 5 children and a cricket club. On average there are at least 2 clubs per week but when there is more spacing availability, the number of clubs can be as high as 7 especially during Summer when the outdoor space can be utilised.
Parents' Views
A group of parents, predominately parents who had at least one child in Lower/ Upper Key Stage two, to reflect on the impact in which the Sports Premium has had this year and how they feel P.E as a curriculum area is changing and developing. Parents were very positive about the impact it has had on the profile and emphasis on P.E and sports throughout school; one parent commented that they were "thrilled to bits how the profile of P.E has been raised and the presence of sports" (within the curriculum and wider curriculum).
They had felt that in previous years the amount and variation of the competitions which The Ridge took part in was limited. However, they were pleased that the funding has allowed staff members, especially P.E coordinator and Sports coach, to take children out into the community to competitions. They were enthusiastic about the variation of the competitions and that they were aimed at different age ranges across the school. They felt that because of the increased number of competitions taking place that children were more enthused and driven in sports and enjoyed representing The Ridge. In terms of links with the community and other schools, they felt it has allowed The Ridge to become more known for the sports and better known with our school links such as Ridgewood and Windsor High School.
Parents spoke encouragingly about the number of after-school sports clubs which were now available, both the mixture of sports clubs led by staff and our sports coach but also welcomed those led by outside agencies such as 'Ace Coaching'. They felt that it allowed, as one parent noted, children to "discover their talents, ones which previously they may not have realised they had", using the example of a successful gymnastics club and subsequent competition. They felt it is becoming a more broad selection of activities the children can engage in. They welcomed our recent addition of yoga club which allowed children who may not necessarily enjoy competitive sports to be given the opportunity to uncover their talents and interests.
Parent's Suggestions and Recommendations
- More teaching staff to be involved in sports after-school clubs including sporting activities for children who may not be as interested in competitive sports (zumba, dance or cheerleading were given as suggestions).
- All school children to take part in the 'Daily Mile' to encourage a healthy lifestyle and for children to more fit and healthy, especially those children who do not take part in many additional sporting activities in school or outside of school.
- Additional team sports especially football.
Next Steps and Recommendations
- The government has confirmed that funding from the tax on sugary drinks will be ring fenced for school sport until 2020. The Primary PE and Sports Premium Funding will double from 2017.
- As a staffing team, based all of the impact above, we need to decide whether to continue with the use of a specialist teacher and/or whether other avenues such as specialised sports coaches would be more beneficial.
- Continue to increase the amount of sports clubs and variety in Sports activities, especially for Key Stage 1 pupils; through continuation of the Change4life club (Lunch times by Sports Coach and after-school club in Summer led by playmakers) and ACE coaching clubs as well as introducing new clubs too. Children in Year 3 and 4 noted the lack of sports club opportunities for Key Stage 1 as well as the lack of football club, which needs to be considered to enable children to take part in a league against other schools.
- Consider whether we introduce the 'Daily Mile' as part of our daily timetable for all children, or selected year groups, across the school.
Megan Collins
