Sports Premium Funding

Primary PE and sport premium to continue at £320 million for 2022-23

The Department for Education confirmed on the 25th June 2022 that the Primary PE and sport premium funding will continue for the academic year 2022-23.

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 for the academic year 2022-23.

£320 million will be delivered to schools in 2022/23 to give more children access to high-quality PE lessons and sporting opportunities, supporting both their physical and mental wellbeing.

In addition, £11 million will also support the continuation of the School Games programme to give particularly passionate and talented young people the opportunity to participate in competitive sport. The PE and sport premium and School Games programme supports the government’s commitment to ensuring children and young people have access to at least 60 minutes, or 20 minutes for children with a disability, of physical activity a day. Read more here. 

Some CJ schools who have used Sports Premium to fund the programme:

Heathfield Primary School in Bolton;

We invested in Commando Joes Character building programme. This active, problem-solving-based team games promote resilience and problem solving as well as physical fitness. The sessions are run by our own Commando Joe each Monday in school, and children also have the chance to become Junior Joe’s as part of our student leadership programme.

Ferndale Primary school  Birmingham;

The next steps for our Sports Premium; is to embed the use of Commando Joe within PE as well as across the curriculum to further develop character education and core values in line with the school’s policy and expectations.

Heath Hayes Academy Burton Upon Trent

Heath Hayes Academy follows the Commando Joe’s (COJO’s) school-led primary programme from Reception to Year 6. COJO’s aims to provide a character learning journey that can be personalised to the needs of children, whatever their background or circumstance – encouraging children to think critically and develop a mindset that thrives on looking at themselves and others from different perspectives.

Commando Joe’s offers schools a whole school approach from EYFS all the way through to KS4.

Our Ask Research report found that Overwhelmingly pupils developed RESPECT traits during the programme, such as:

• 96.4% of pupils increased their score on at least one trait.
• Around 90% of pupils received a higher score in their final assessment than they did at baseline on each trait (this varied between 87.7% and 91.5% of pupils depending on the trait in question).
• 75.4% were assessed as having improved on all seven traits (compared to their baseline score).
• The trait ‘Teamwork’ had the greatest average increase in scores (3.79 points) and was the trait with the highest proportion of pupils receiving an improved score in their final assessment (91.5%).

Independent Research has shown that our programmes can help pupils to; 

• Experience new activities and experiences
• Experience success (in a non-academic domain, where this may be less common for them).
• Benefits for pupils with SEND and challenging issues/behaviours. These include:
• A chance to demonstrate their abilities
• Engaging with outdoor, active learning
• Experiencing success
• Being in the same boat as others (as everyone was facing challenges they had not encountered before), rather than being seen as different or disadvantaged
• Understanding the impact of their behaviour on others

How can CJ’s support in schools?

• Support and involve the least active children
• Provide staff with professional development, mentoring, training and resources
• Support pupils to take leadership or volunteer roles
• Measure the impact the school has seen on pupil activity and engagement 
• Build capacity and capability within the school to ensure that improvements made now will benefit pupils joining the school in future years
• Encourage active play during break times and lunchtimes through our Instructor-led or school-led programme

If you’d like to join the thousands of other schools and find out more about our programmes, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.