My Lords, first, I congratulate my noble friend on securing this debate and thank noble Lords for a lively and well supported exchange of views. It has been very much enriched by the maiden speech of the noble Lord, Lord Allen of Kensington, who brought his very considerable experience of these matters. The noble Lord definitely hit a six with his maiden speech, and I congratulate him.
The summer of 2012 showed us that there is a tremendous appetite in this country for sporting competition. In the past year, 83% of children aged
five to 15 reported that they had participated in some form of competitive sport—I think that the noble Lord, Lord Stevenson of Balmacara, and I need to go over our figures together—with 79% taking part in school and 37% outside of school. We want these figures to increase.
Competitive sport plays an important role in a child’s development. As the noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson, and the noble Lords, Lord Allen and Lord Stevenson, said, it is all about improving health and well-being, but it also helps to teach children how to deal with the ups and downs that life undoubtedly brings. I was very struck by what IOC President Thomas Bach said last night in the closing ceremony about recognising victory and defeat with dignity. It also teaches children how to work in a team, which is extremely important, and many of your Lordships have been involved in very senior team-making. It also improves confidence and increases concentration.
Furthermore, it is a widely held view that children should be physically active as early as possible so as to gain the skills and confidence they need to compete in sport—as well as life skills—and take them on into adult life. That is why the Government are committed to reviving competitive sport and why we have given it a much needed boost by establishing the School Games and investing in the PE and sport primary school premium. I agree entirely with the noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson, that it must be delivered in the right way.
Launched in 2011, the School Games features more than 30 sports, many of which have been raised during this debate. It is sponsored by Sainsbury’s and run by the Youth Sport Trust, and has already transformed competitive school sport. It is designed to give every child the chance to play more competitive sport, regardless of ability or disability, across four levels.
At level 1, pupils compete against their peers in school, culminating in an annual school games sports day. At level 2, schools compete against each other. Level 3 features the best athletes from levels 1 and 2, who represent their school at a county festival. Last year, more than 100 summer and winter festivals took place, involving more than 100,000 pupils, about 10% of whom were children with disabilities, and 36% of whom were of primary school age.
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Level 4 is the pinnacle of school games. It is predominantly for secondary school children, and gives the best athletes the chance to compete at a major sporting event. About 1,400 athletes competed in Sheffield last year. Manchester will host this year’s finals.
My noble friends Lady Heyhoe Flint and Lord Addington had somewhat differing views about rugby in Surrey. I understand that the RFU, the national governing body for English rugby, remains committed to providing more opportunities for children to compete. Almost 17,000 schools are voluntarily taking part in school games—nearly 70% of all schools in England—including approximately 13,000 primary schools.
Our aim is to have 80% of schools signed up by this time next year and, ultimately, for 100% of schools to be signed up. Our commitment to school sport does
not stop at school games. The Prime Minister recently announced another year of £150 million of funding for the PE and school sport premium, which my noble friend Lady Heyhoe Flint outlined. That funding is now in place up to 2016, and the Prime Minister has said that, should he remain Prime Minister, it would be in place up to 2020.
This ring-fenced funding goes directly into the hands of every primary school head teacher in England to spend on improving PE and sport. Heads decide how to spend their premium, but they are free to use it to get involved in school games and to take advantage of the free support that that provides, including access to one of the 450 school games organisers in post throughout England.
Ofsted has produced guidance for schools on what good PE and sport provision looks like, and inspectors will be looking for good practice during their inspections. This includes paying staff or coaches to run competitions, or increasing participation in school games. In addition, PE rightly remains a compulsory part of the curriculum and has a greater emphasis on competitive sport.
We want all primary schools, large and small, town, suburban and country, to benefit from school games. Schools can spend their premium on training teachers and/or bringing in coaches to give them expertise to teach. Several noble Lords, including my noble friend Lord Addington and Lord Moynihan and the noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson, raised the issue of teaching, particularly in the primary school context.
The new PE curriculum specifically places greater emphasis on pupils’ development of physical literacy at key stages 1 and 2. In addition, with funding of £750,000, the National College for Teaching and Leadership is running a pilot programme to train 120 primary specialist teachers in PE in three teaching schools. Obviously, we need to build on that, and I should very much like to have a discussion with several of your Lordships about the teaching experience, because that will clearly be essential.