This page is information about how we use our sports premium money to make PE, fitness and healthy living a priority at Fair Field School

PE and Sport Premium Funding

At Fair Field Junior School, we believe PE and Sport plays an important role in changing young people’s lives for the better. We have welcomed the Government’s announcement on 22nd June, 2022 confirming that schools in England will benefit from £320 million from the PE and Sport Premium during the academic year 2022 -23. This 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 confirmation of the investment into primary schools for PE, sport, activity and play has never been more needed given the potential disruption to children’s activity levels during lockdown. Research from Sport England, shows that the number of children meeting the Chief Medical Officer’s guidelines has dropped from almost 47% to 19%. Over a third of children say they’ve had less chance to be active because schools are shut. This welcomed investment will play an important part in getting children active - which is important not just for their physical health but because being active builds mental resilience and helps children achieve academically.

At Fair Field, we are committed to using this resource in developing high quality PE lessons, alongside greater opportunities for sporting competitions and clubs for all children.

How we are using it at Fair Field Primary School

Our commitment to providing children with high quality competition access was recognised with the School Games  Gold Award from the Partnership in 2021, achieved despite lockdown. This has been sustained and we are in the process of going for the Gold again, for continuing to give passionate and talented children the opportunity to participate in competitive sport, but also for the physical activity, mental and physical wellbeing activities and opportunities we have provided each of the children across the school. The Gold Award is the highest of those given out by National School Games and is for a school’s contribution and commitment in providing physical activity opportunities for all. We are extremely proud of our pupils for their dedication to all aspects of physical activity and school sport, whether this be running the daily mile, taking part in iMoves or Funky Fridays, playing table tennis at lunchtime, competing during sports day or during a football or netball match. A special thanks to our school sport team of 2021/22: Mr Flynn, Mr Byrne, Miss Berg & Mr Rock because this would not be possible without their support.

 We promote an inclusive ethos where all pupils enjoy participating in sport; empowering them to become the best they can be. One of the many ways we have used the sports funding at Fair Field has been to update our resources for physical education lessons.  Ensuring that the equipment is accessible for all children in the school means that they are able to develop their skills in each area of the curriculum. 

Fair Field continues to be part of the Watford & Hersmere Schools Sports Partnership (WHSSP) which provides advice and quality training for teachers and opportunities for pupils to participate in inter-school sports competitions. This funding has enabled us to enter our children into a wide range of sporting competitions throughout the year as well as funding members of the WHSSP staff in training our staff in a variety of areas across physical education, such as MSa and leadership training. We have entered a wide range of sport and dance competitions, progressing to the regional finals. 

We will continue to broaden the level of activity within the school through sport clubs  which will have a long-lasting impact on the health and fitness of every child in the school.

We are fortunate to have a relationship with Haberdashers' - who loan us the use of their  swimming pool and coaches free of charge for a year group a term. In addition, we take the children to the Venue - meaning that children receive 2 terms of school swimming. This has had a  clear impact of raising attainment in swimming to meet requirements of the National Curriculum before the end of Key Stage 2, with Fair field reaching over 90%. Cover for our PE Leaderis used to allow him to assess how our new PE and Games Scheme is being delivered and assessed across the school as well as auditing the equipment and ensuring it is kept up to date. His release time allows him to share good practice and identify how the teaching of PE can be improved. We will continue to ensure our children have access to different sporting opportunities including competitions and festivals. To promote the importance of a healthy active lifestyle children will take part in many inter school sport events including sports fancy dress, tournaments, sports days, sports relief days and sports challenges.

At our school we have developed a plan to ensure this funding is invested to maximise the long term impact of our PE provision for pupils and staff. The impact of these initiatives is monitored through assessment of children’s skills, staff and pupil feedback, uptake of clubs etc.

The following factors are taken into account:

At Fair Field, we have developed a plan to ensure this funding is invested to maximise the long term impact of our PE provision for pupils and staff. The impact of

these initiatives is monitored through assessment of children’s skills, staff and pupil feedback, uptake of clubs etc.

The following factors are taken into account:

1. The increase in participation rates in such activities as games, dance, gymnastics, swimming and athletics
2. The growth in the range of traditional and alternative sporting activities
3. The increase and success in competitive school sports
4. How much more inclusive the physical education curriculum has become
5. The improvement in partnership work on physical education with other schools and local partners
6. Greater awareness amongst pupils about the dangers of obesity, smoking and other such activities that undermine pupils’ health

Sustainability: to build capacity and capability within our school to ensure improvements made now will benefit pupils joining the school in future years, we will extend the resources available within PE lessons and the confidence of class teachers and support staff to ensure that learning within PE and games is consistently improving and that improvements are sustainable. We will continue to broaden the level of activity within the school through termly squads, clubs, and the Daily Mile which will have long lasting impact on the health and fitness of every child in the school. Additionally, Complete PE continues to deliver high quality learning, active learning, thus sustaining wellbeing. 

Our connection with WHSSP will continue to develop teacher understanding of fully inclusive PE lessons and through shared resources this connection is beneficial long term. To read more information about sustainability, please click on our Impact reports below.

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