Great news for all those Volleyball Clubs that provide addition support in scholls, providing coaching through the Primary Premium funding. The government have announced that the funding will continue into the 2020/21 academic year.

Sport and physical activity will be at the heart of children’s recovery from the coronavirus lockdown after the Government guaranteed £320 million of funding for primary school PE.

The announcement, will preserve numerous jobs and is accompanied by a government pledge that schoolchildren will have access to at least an hour of sport and activity every day.

That is the chief medical officer’s minimum recommendation, but the number of children meeting that guideline has fallen dramatically during the pandemic from 47 per cent to just 19 per cent.

Most alarming of all, one in 10 children have been getting no physical activity at all.​

Importantly, the DfE has also sanctioned any Primary PE and Sport Premium funding from the current academic year (2019-20), that schools were unable to use, as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, can be carried forward to utilise in the next academic year.

The Premium is designed to help children get an active start in life, supporting primary schools to improve the quality of their PE and sport provision so that pupils experience the benefits of regular exercise – from becoming healthier both mentally and physically to improved behaviour and better academic achievement. The funding is a ring-fenced grant for English primary schools to provide additional and sustainable improvements to the quality of PE, sport and physical activity. Allocations to schools are determined by a formula based on pupil numbers. The average one form entry primary school will receive roughly £18,000 per year.

Education Secretary, Gavin Williamson, said:

“During these challenging times, it has become clearer to me than ever the importance of keeping active and how it benefits not just our physical health but also our ability to pay attention, our mood and our mental health too.”

 

“Every family will have had a different experience of the pandemic, and I know that many children will have missed time spent outdoors with their friends – that’s why it’s so important that ahead of a full return to school in September, schools get the certainty they need to prepare their PE and sports activities for next year.”