Has the Primary PE and School Sport Premium led to quality CPD in your setting?

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Has the Primary PE and School Sport Premium led to quality CPD in your setting?

The Primary PE and School Sport Premium Survey Research Report, (July 2019), from the Department for Education (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/primary-pe-and-sport-premium-survey) makes some heartening claims around the physical activity CPD being offered to school staff as a result of this generous school funding. Researchers found:
• Almost 9 in 10 respondents thought that the confidence, knowledge and/or skills of all staff in teaching PE had increased ‘a little’ or ‘a lot’.
• Almost 9 in 10 respondents felt that the quality of teaching of PE lessons had increased either ‘a little’ or ‘a lot’ in their school since September 2017.
• Respondents also reported increased use of external sports coaches and specialist PE teachers to deliver PE and extracurricular sport since September 2017 (indicating an increase of more than 10 percentage points in each case).

It might seem surprising then that many schools continue to employ external coaches and specialist PE teachers to deliver the curriculum. Here are some key points from the research document:
• The main constraints in delivering physical activity were reported as ‘lack of space or a lack of facilities’ (half of responses), and a lack of teacher skills experience or confidence (a quarter). Unprompted, a notable minority of respondents also specified ‘a lack of curriculum time’.
• Allowing a full time PE specialist to be employed by school fulltime allowing ALL PE lessons to be delivered to a high standard. Plus ALL extra curriculum sporting clubs are free after school. Top up Swim for Yr6 has also occurred as in the past school didn’t have the funding for this to occur.
• The greatest benefit has come from the Investment in a specialist PE teacher (Primary QTS) who can plan an engaging and comprehensive curriculum whilst supporting and leading high quality CPD for class teachers. This specialist teacher was then best placed to provide a high participation focused, high quality extracurricular programme to benefit all pupils, not just those who are most or least able.
• The opportunity to upskill more staff in a wider range of sports. Our teachers are much happier teaching PE. We now also have enough equipment to run extracurricular clubs for large amounts of children.
Although this research is now based on former years, the ‘Evidencing the Impact’ documents all schools are required to publish annually still (in summer 2020), show a high percentage of the funding is being used for the same purpose. i.e. To upskill teacher knowledge through CPD and to give them the confidence to teach PE more confidently.

What is your experience of CPD in physical activity?

Has your school used the funding in this way and what has been the impact on your subject knowledge, confidence, and ability to teach quality Physical Education lessons?

We really would be interested to hear your views on this conundrum around the PPE & SSP funding.

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