Sports Premium

Our effective Use of PE Sports Premium Funding

Like all school's, Paddocks Primary School has noticed a significant and ongoing impact on children's physical health and fitness after the effects of the two national lockdowns.  Sports England have noted that just 44.9% of children are active for over 60 minutes a day.  Furthermore, national statistics show that obesity levels in EYFS and Year 6 children have increased by 4.5%. 

As a school dedicated to addressing and meeting the whole needs of a child, Paddocks used its Sports Premium to continue to support children's active participation in physical exercise.  

For the academic year 2023/2024, Paddocks Primary School received approximately £17,920 which we spent to improve, grow and expand our physical education and sport provision in the following ways:

We contributed £2,855 of funding to our local network, the Forest Heath Schools Sports Partnership (FHSSP). Membership of this partnership allows us to participate in a wide variety of inter-school tournaments in the Newmarket and Mildenhall area.  This year, children at Paddocks took part in over 15 different inter-school sporting fixtures, from football to rugby and cricket.  It is important to note the inclusive philosophy of FHSSP - a broad spectrum of matches and fixtures having a focus on developing skills and personal engagement rather than purely being competitive in nature.  The same philosophy is used by staff at Paddocks to ensure that selected teams represent the diversity of our school community.

Membership also included;

• Sport Leader UK Playmaker Award training for Year 5.  This is a nationally recognised course from Sports leaders UK which promotes and develops the following skills: leadership, physical activity, literacy.  The Playmaker Award is a great introduction into leadership for pupils and comprised of a six hour course that was delivered during the second half of the Autumn term.  Once the training was completed - Year 5 worked closely together to organise and lead small group activities for KS1 children during their lunch hour.  This highly successful scheme contributed to the good atmosphere and behaviour in the school in addition to ensuring that children had access to engaging sports provision in KS1 during break times.

• Two, six hour coaching sessions (12 hours in total), during which specialist, trained professional coaches (hockey and netball) worked alongside both children and teachers to ensure the delivery of high quality sports.  Not only did these sessions offer the children a superb opportunity to develop their skills under the tutelage of a trained level 3 professional coach, but teachers, working alongside them, further developed and enhanced their own curriculum knowledge and delivery practice.
• Balanceability for children in Year One.  A fun and highly accessible scheme which helped young KS1 children in their journey on learning how to ride a bike.  
• A SEND workshop in the Summer term.  This event specifically targeted and engaged young people with SEND in fun athletic and track events with a spirit of light personal competition.  It was highly successful, with children reporting how much they enjoyed it.
• Mini medics - a superb course that was delivered during the Summer term, aiming to train Year 6 children on basic first aid skills.

For the year 2022/2023 we used £13,776 to fund Premier Sports sessions. This professional agency supports the school in its delivery of P.E lessons by providing weekly, high quality, coaching opportunities across all year groups.  Additionally, they provided:

• Five lunch time club sessions per week (for KS2 children) where Premier Sports staff will use a variety of resources to engage KS2 children in sporting activities during the lunch hour.  In the past, these have been extremely well attended (registers were kept) and indicate a broad increase in the attendance of children taking part in extra-curricular sporting activities.  These clubs also extend our provision and contributed to our commitment in growing children's activity levels.
• Three after school clubs (KS2 invasion games, multisports and Dance and Drama) which are part-funded by the school to ensure that more children are able to access them.  

In addition;

• We funded Year Four children's swimming lessons, organised by Vertas.
• We contributed towards a level 1/2 Bikeability training course for Year Five and Six children during the summer term which was attended by over 20 students.

• We continued to repair and replace equipment to ensure that children are safe.  
• We part-funded a dodgeball after-school club.

Impact so far: 

• In June 2024, Paddocks Primary school achieved a gold School Games Mark. 

• A whole school ethos centered on the provision of quality games and sports.

• A greater participation in sports across the whole school.
• An increase in activity and a greater emphasis made on how an active lifestyle can contribute towards a positive learning environment. 

For further information on Sports Premium, please click here.  

Swimming at Paddocks Primary School is extremely important to us.  As a life-saving skill we encourage all of our children to achieve the National expectation of 25m unaided swimming.  Our current Cohort of 30 Year Six children (9 girls, 21 boys with 8 on the school’s SEND register), all achieved either the gold or silver swimming award at Newmarket Leisure Centre at the end of their time in Year Four.