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Sports Premium

Sports Funding

Sports Premium 

The premium for each academic year is paid in 2 instalments from the Secretary of State to the authority as follows: 

Purpose of the premium

The premium must be used to fund additional and sustainable improvements to the provision of PE and sport, for the benefit of primary-aged pupils to encourage the development of healthy, active lifestyles.

Basis of allocation

Allocations for the academic year are calculated using the number of pupils in years 1 to 6, as recorded in the January census, as follows:

  • schools with 17 or more pupils receive £16,000 plus £10 per pupil

  • schools with 16 or fewer pupils receive £1000 per pupil 

Where a school’s pupils are not recorded by year group, pupils aged 5 to 10 are deemed eligible. In the case of a school which has opened or is due to open during the academic year, the above formula will apply based on pupils recorded on the autumn school census. Allocations for such schools will be paid by 31 January (first instalment) and on 30 April (second instalment).

The allocations for each school in the authority will be published in October and will include schools that were maintained schools at 1 September. Academies will receive the premium directly from the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA).

Authorities should not pay the premium to academies that converted on or by 1 September, as they will receive their funding directly from the ESFA.

Schools that convert to academies from 1 September up to and including 1 April will be paid the April to August element of the academic year allocation direct from the ESFA on 1 May.

The premium must be made available by the authority to the school irrespective of the existence of any deficit relating to the expenditure of the school’s budget share. The premium is not part of schools’ budget shares and is not part of the individual schools budget. It is not to be counted for the purpose of calculating the minimum funding guarantee.

Terms on which the premium is allocated to schools

Local authorities must pass the premium to maintained schools within one month of receipt, and must require that maintained schools comply with the conditions set out below.

The premium must be spent by schools on making additional and sustainable improvements to the provision of PE and sport for the benefit of all pupils to encourage the development of healthy, active lifestyles. The Secretary of State does not consider the following expenditure as falling within the scope of additional or sustainable improvement:

  • employing coaches or specialist teachers to cover planning preparation and assessment (PPA) arrangements - these should come out of schools’ core staffing budgets

  • teaching the minimum requirements of the national curriculum PE programmes of study - including those specified for swimming