At St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School we believe that Physical Education, School Sport and Healthy Active Lifestyles are central to each pupil’s physical development and well-being.

We recognise the importance of every child establishing life-long habits and developing physical, mental and social well-being. For the last six years since the introduction of Sports Premium, this vision has had a major impact on outcomes across our school.

Physical activity is a high priority at our school, it is firmly embedded before school, during lesson time, during breaks and lunchtimes and after-school. Our ambition over the last six years, has been to raise the profile of sport and physical activity to ensure that every pupil develops a love of sport to allow them to achieve their full physical potential and change their life for the better.

At St Joseph’s, Sports Premium Funding is highly valued and we are committed to ensuring it is spent to maximum effect.

As part of the Government's £150 million per year funding, we have received £17,800 to spend on physical education and school sport. The funding is ring-fenced and can therefore only be spent on improving the quality and breadth of PE and Sport in school.

The funding must be used to make additional and sustainable improvements to the quality of PE and Sport. Sports Premium should be used to build capacity within the school and we are working to ensure that improvements made will benefit pupils in future years.

There are 5 Key Indicators that we are focused on and which we are seeing significant improvements across:

1.The engagement of all pupils in regular physical activity - the Chief Medical Officer guidelines recommend that all children and young people aged 5 to 18 engage in at least 60 minutes of physical activity a day, of which 30 minutes should be in school

2. The profile of PE and sport is raised across the school as a tool for whole-school improvement
3. Increased confidence, knowledge and skills of all staff in teaching PE and sport
4. Broader experience of a range of sports and activities offered to all pupils
5. Increased participation in competitive sport

Here at St Joseph’s we use a portion of the funding to employ a Cluster Sports Coordinator who works collaboratively across eight local schools (she is a qualified Physical Education teacher with 20 years teaching experience and a school Leadership background.) By working as part of this cluster we are able to use our Sports Premium most effectively to:

1. Improve the quality and breadth of PE and sport provision within the curriculum (with a focus on up-skilling our own Teachers and Teaching Assistants for the future)
2. Increase participation in PE, Sport and Physical Activity so that all pupils develop healthy lifestyles and reach the performance levels they are capable of 

3. Provide an extensive range of activities available for extra-curricular and competitive opportunities