PE and Sports Premium
At St Catherine’s, we believe that every child should have the chance to lead a healthy and active life. Taking part in regular physical activity helps children to feel happier, more confident, and ready to learn. It supports both their physical health and mental wellbeing, and helps build skills like teamwork, resilience and trust.
The government wants all children to have access to at least 60 minutes of physical activity every day - with 30 minutes taking place during the school day. Schools are also encouraged to provide at least 2 hours of curriculum PE each week.
The Primary PE and Sport Premium helps schools meet these goals. Over the past two years (2023-24 and 2024-25), the government has provided over £600 million in funding to help schools improve PE and increase opportunities for all pupils to be active - especially those who may be less active or face barriers to participation.
We are pleased to share how we have used this funding at St Catherine’s during the academic year 2024-25, our aim has been to make lasting improvements to PE, sport, and activity across the school.
The government has confirmed that the Primary PE and Sport Premium will continue into the 2025-26 academic year, with £320 million in funding for eligible schools. This shows the continued commitment to making sure all children - especially those who are least active or from disadvantaged backgrounds - can access high quality PE and take part in regular physical activity.
At St Catherine’s, we will continue to build on the progress we’ve made, making sure that physical activity remains a strong part of school life for every child.
Review of Last Year 2024-25
All children took part in at least 2 hours of taught physical activity each week; for some classes this included swimming, and dance delivered by a professional.
All children were engaged in at least 30 minutes of physical activity during the school day at break and lunchtimes. We introduced loose parts play provision for our older children and they fully engaged with the challenges and opportunities that this brought. Staff were trained and supported in assessing risk, and in how they can help children to assess risk against challenge.
Plans for 2025-26
We will further develop loose parts provision during playtimes and lunchtimes to enhance opportunities for physical development, team building, problem solving, and personal development.
We will develop outdoor provision to meet the requirements of the curriculum and beyond, particularly in EYFS and for those children with high needs SEND, in order that they are positively engaged in their outdoor environment, taking risks and facing desireable difficulties in order to meet critical developmental milestones.
We will provide targeted additional swimming beyond Year 4 in order to increase the number of children achieving national expectations, and encourage increased engagement in swimming beyond school.
Evidencing the Impact of Primary PE at St Catherine’s - July 2025
The total amount of grant funding received for the academic year 2024-25 was £19,660. This was spent as follows:
£5,000 on CPD training courses
£350 on CPD online resource development
£11,310 on swimming lessons for Year 1, Year 2 and Year 3 pupils
£3,000 on equipment and resources
Year 6 Outcomes in Swimming 2024/25
60 percent of our Year 6 children can swim competently, confidently and proficiently over a distance of 25 metres.
70 percent of our Year 6 children can use a range of strokes effectively (e.g. front crawl, backstroke, breaststroke).
100 percent of our Year 6 children can perform safe self-rescue in different water-based situuations.
This cohort would have had swimming lessons as follows:
2019/20 - 4 weeks swimming lessons in Year 1
2020/21 - 4 weeks swimming lessons in Year 2 - cancelled due to COVID restrictions
2021/22 - 18 weeks swimming lessons in Year 3 - cancelled due to COVID restrictions
2022/23 - 18 weeks swimming lessons in Year 4