School Sport

In my current role as Deputy Head I have less to do with school sport, however, in 17 years of working in education I have never come across an initiative that has had such impact as the network of school sports partnerships. The decision to imitially axe these was nothing to do with their effectiveness but just pure bloody minedness. The decision to reinstate 1/3rd of the funding is even more galling as is obviously just a short term measure so that the government doesn't attract any negative publicity before the olympics. The money will no longer be ringfenced for schools but will be in the general budget for heads to spend. No doubt they may use this to plug other holes in their budget. In my experience the major impact of the program has been:-

• Increase in quality and quantity of PE and school sport (especially in primary schools).
• Increase in breadth of sports opportunities and links to local clubs.
• Increase in competition for those not already involved in school sport.
• Increase in opportunities for those at the performance end in their sports - workshops - lifestyle etc.
• Increased opportunities for leadership for all secondary school students and links as ambassedors linked to the olympics.
• Increase in the quality of transition support from primary to secondary schools.