Grudging change of heart on school sport

20 Dec 2010

The semi U-turn on school sport appears to be a rather grudging acceptance that the government got its initial decision wrong -- but the new money announced today does not by any means fully reverse the spending cut imposed on school sports partnerships.

School Sports Partnerships will not survive beyond next July.

After weeks of pressure - and the intervention of the Prime Minister - the Education Secretary, Michael Gove, has announced:

that school sports partnerships will now continue for the rest of the school year, in other words about another 6 months until summer 2011, at a cost of £47 million (compared to the £162 million that was removed in the spending review).
and £65 million (taken from the existing DfE budget - not new money) will be paid to each secondary school to release one PE teacher for a day a week in the school years 2011/12 and 2012/13.

In other words, school sport partnerships will only survive for another 6 months or so. These partnerships allowed the employment of a full-time sports co-ordinator, working across several schools, to organise competitive sport. The new scheme will only free PE teachers at secondary schools for one day a week. It is not clear whether they will be expected to work with primary schools too.

In short, school sports co-ordinators have only won a 6 month reprieve - then their jobs will go.

To see the reaction of the Facebook campaign to save SPS see: www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Save-School-Sport-Partnerships/159893774044860