1 Introduction
Background to the inquiry
1. The events of London 2012 were meant to "inspire
a generation" of young people and to provide a legacy beyond
the weeks of the Games. We therefore decided to hold a short inquiry
into school sport following London 2012, in advance of the first
anniversary of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. We announced
our inquiry in February 2013 with the following terms of reference:
- The impact and effectiveness
of current Government policy and expenditure on increasing sport
in schools;
- The scope, appropriateness and likelihood of
success of the Government's plans for a school sport legacy from
London 2012;
- The impact so far of London 2012 on the take-up
of competitive sport in schools; and
- What further measures should be taken to ensure
a sustainable and effective legacy in school sport following London
2012.
Evidence base of our inquiry
2. We received 49 submissions from a range of
organisations and individuals. This included evidence from schools,
school sport co-ordinators, National Governing Bodies of various
sports, national sport delivery bodies, local government, academics
in the field, and the Departments of Health and for Education.
3. We held three formal oral evidence sessions,
where we heard from a range of witnesses. These were:
- representatives from national
sporting bodies;
- representatives of regional sporting bodies;
- former Olympic competitors;
- representatives of a range of schools;
- Olympic and Paralympic legacy "visionaries";
and,
- the responsible Minister (Edward Timpson MP,
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Children and Families).
4. While we were content that we received a range
of views and collected evidence from a number of different people,
it was unfortunate that we were unable to take evidence from Lord
Coe, given his role in the bid for, and the organisation of, the
Games and his current role advising the Prime Minister on the
Olympic legacy.
5. To broaden the base of our inquiry we visited
three schools in East London where we met: teachers and pupils
from Barking Abbey school, a sports specialist college for 11-18
year olds; staff and pupils at Hallsville primary school, Newham;
and the head teacher and pupils at Curwen primary school, Newham,
together with representatives from the Football Association. In
addition, we received 312 responses to an online survey of teachers
on the sport provision in their school. We also ran an online
survey of young people to gather their thoughts on sport in their
school and simultaneously started a twitter conversation with
older young people to collect their views on the same subject.
The survey of young people received 773 responses. Notes of the
meetings in East London and results from the surveys are summarised
in annexes to this report. Data from the surveys will be published
on our website.
6. Our inquiry has benefited from the involvement
of our specialist advisers, Professor David Kirk and Dr Jo Harris,
and we are grateful to them for sharing their expertise.[1]
Background information
DEFINITIONS OF SCHOOL SPORT AND PHYSICAL
EDUCATION
7. Physical activity, physical education and
school sport are similar in that they all include physical movement,
but there are important differences between them. The working
definitions we used for this inquiry were:[2]
- Physical activity
is a broad term referring to all bodily movement that uses energy.
It includes all forms of physical education, sports and dance
activities. It also includes indoor and outdoor play, work-related
activity, outdoor and adventurous activities, active travel (e.g.
walking, cycling, rollerblading, scooting) and routine, habitual
activities such as using the stairs, doing housework and gardening.
- Physical education
is the planned, progressive learning that takes place in school
curriculum timetabled time and which is delivered to all pupils.
This involves both 'learning to move' (i.e. becoming more physically
competent) and 'moving to learn' (e.g. learning through movement,
a range of skills and understandings beyond physical activity,
such as co-operating with others).
- School sport is the
structured learning that takes place beyond the curriculum (i.e.
in the extended curriculum) within school settings; this is sometimes
referred to as out-of-school-hours learning.
OLYMPIC AND PARALYMPIC LEGACY
8. One of the five legacy promises made in the
Labour Government's June 2008 publication Before, during and
after: making the most of the London 2012 Games was "to
make the UK a world-leading sporting nation" through, inter
alia, inspiring young people through sport.
9. In December 2010 the Coalition Government
issued its own document, Plans for the legacy from the 2012
Olympic and Paralympic Games. This suggested that the legacy
should be provided through the "Places People Play"
initiative and a Schools Games.[3]
In January 2012 the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and
Sport announced details of a new youth sport strategy which included
steps aimed at schools, including the formation of satellite clubs
in all secondary schools in England by 2015, and the resourcing
of county sport partnerships to create links between school and
community sport. This was followed in September 2012 by a further
announcement by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)
of a ten point sporting legacy plan which included a pledge to
ensure that more is done to ensure PE in school is available to
all.
CURRENT SCHOOL SPORT POLICY
10. PE is compulsory within the National Curriculum
and it remains in the new draft National Curriculum, on which
a public consultation has recently been held. The draft programme
of study for key stages 1-4 for PE sets out the purpose of study:
A high-quality physical education curriculum inspires
all pupils to succeed and excel in competitive sport and other
physically demanding activities. It should provide opportunities
for pupils to become physically confident in a way which supports
their health and fitness. Opportunities to compete in sport and
other activities build character and help to embed values such
as fairness and respect.[4]
11. In October 2010 the Secretary of State for
Education announced that the previous Government's Physical Education
and Sports Strategy was being discontinued and that ring-fenced
funding for School Sport Partnerships[5]
(SSPs) was to end in March 2011. The rationale was to encourage
more competitive sport in schools and to give schools the freedom
to concentrate on this by removing many of the requirements of
the previous strategy, including: a baseline target of two-hours
per week of PE and sport for every child; the recording of information
about the levels of activity for every pupil for an annual survey;
and reporting to the Youth Sport Trust (YST) on various performance
indicators.
12. Following high levels of opposition to the
decision, in December 2010 the Department for Education (DfE)
extended funding for SSPs until August 2011 and made additional
funding available to encourage the take-up of competitive sport.
A further £65m was allocated to enable secondary schools
to release one PE teacher for a day a week in school years 2011/12
and 2012/13 to help with sport in primary schools.
13. In March 2013 the Government announced new
ring-fenced funding of £150 million per annum for two years
from school year 2013/14 to provide primary school sport. The
Prime Minister framed the announcement in terms of "capitalising
on the inspiration young people took from what they saw during
those summer months" of 2012.[6]
The funding is jointly provided by three Departments—Education,
Health and Culture, Media & Sport—and the money will
go directly to primary school head teachers to spend on improving
the quality of sport and PE for all their children. The funding
is worth, on average, around £9,250 per school.
14. Schools will be held to account for how they
spend the sport funding, through Ofsted and a requirement to publish
details of the sports provision on a school's own website. The
DfE have told us that "Ofsted will strengthen its coverage
of sport and PE within the Inspectors' Handbook and supporting
guidance, so that schools and inspectors are clear about how sport
and PE will be assessed in future as part of the overall provision
offered by the school."[7]
The revised handbook will also ask inspectors to consider how
well the school uses its sport premium to improve the quality,
breadth of its PE and sporting provision.[8]
In addition, Ofsted will undertake two separate surveys of school
sport and PE: the first will be a "rapid response" to
identify and promote best practice; the second, up to a year later,
will be a review of how schools have used the additional funding
and its impact.[9] The
publication of details on school websites is intended to enable
parents and other interested parties to monitor how the money
is being used and to compare with other schools.[10]
15. At the same time as announcing the new "primary
sport premium" the Government also announced a pilot of 120
new primary teachers who will be trained with a specialism in
PE, to begin work in schools in September 2013.[11]
1 Prof David Kirk and Dr Jo Harris recorded no relevant
interests Back
2
'Physical Education Matters' (Spring 2013, Vol. 8, No. 1, pages
82-87) Back
3
The School Games is a four level- intra school, inter school,
county festivals and national finals - competition for school
children in England. "The Games are designed to build on
the magic of 2012 to enable every school and child to participate
in competitive sport including meaningful opportunities for disabled
youngsters."[Sport England website] Back
4
Draft National Curriculum Programme of Study for PE, DfE, February
2013 Back
5
Partnerships were "families" of schools which typically
comprised a specialist sports college linked to a set of secondary
schools, each of which has a further group of primary and special
schools clustered around it. (DfE, 2010) Back
6
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/21808982 Back
7
Ev 85, para 6.1 Back
8
Ev 86, para 6.3 Back
9
Ibid., para 6.4 Back
10
Ev 86, para 6.5 Back
11
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/150m-olympic-legacy-boost-for-primary-school-sport-in-england
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