Grant Shapps – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Grant Shapps on 2016-10-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans her Department has to improve on the Sport England strategy to develop physical literacy in schools during this current Parliament.

Edward Timpson

We want all pupils to be healthy and active, and have given schools the freedom to deliver a diverse and challenging PE curriculum that best suits the needs of their pupils.

PE is a compulsory subject at all four key stages in the national curriculum. The programme of study sets the expectation that schools should provide opportunities for pupils to become physically confident in a way that supports their health and fitness. Through the primary PE and sport premium, primary schools have already received over £450 million of ring-fenced funding to provide additional and sustainable improvements to their PE and sport provision. In an independent evaluation, 84% of schools reported an increase in pupil engagement in PE during curricular time and in the levels of participation in extra-curricular activities.

Schools can decide how best to use this funding, and may elect to bring in additional resources and technologies if they feel this would provide additional and sustainable improvements to their PE and sport provision. The Government has committed to doubling the funding to £320 million a year from September 2017 using revenue from the soft drinks industry levy.

In the new Sport Strategy, the Government has committed to support children and young people to develop the confidence and skills to take part and to be positive about sport and activity. As part of this work, we will be exploring how to further increase physical literacy standards in primary schools and considering how we can track levels of physical activity to help support children to have healthy and active lives.