Sport Wales Confirms Young People Funds

£1.78 million of funding has been made available to meet the Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson’s Schools and Physical Activity Task and Finish Group’s recommendation that young people in Wales become physically literate.

Funds for the new Physical Literacy Programme for Schools were announced by education and skills minister Huw Lewis and culture and sport minister John Griffiths on Tuesday.

The aim of the programme is to deliver a long term improvement in physical literacy and an increase in physical activity amongst children in schools in Wales, helping them get hooked on sport for life and to adopt healthy lifestyles.

Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson said of the announcement: ‘I am pleased that Welsh Government has decided to invest not only in the development of a Physical Literacy Framework  but also in supporting schools to ensure that every pupil has a high quality experience.’ 

‘Being active and taking part in sport has so many benefits that we should be doing everything we can to provide children and young people with the skills and confidence to enjoy a lifelong relationship with sport. Through this programme I would hope that we can create a generation of young people who are confident in their ability to participate in a range of activities throughout their life.’

Funding will be used to enable Sport Wales to:

• increase sport and physical activity in schools in Wales with a focus on those in deprived areas;
• develop a draft Physical Literacy Framework;
• involve prominent athletes is community sports days;
• make the annual School Sport Survey part of the data included on the Welsh Government’s My Local School Website.

Further funding of up to £2.35 million has been agreed in principle to continue this work in 2015/16 but will be subject to review.

Lewis said: ‘The significant funding we’ve announced today will widen children and young people’s engagement in PE and sport in schools, particularly within schools in deprived communities. Every child in Wales should have a high quality experience of PE and school sport and every school should value the importance of physical activity to the health and wellbeing of their pupils.’

Sarah Powell, chief executive of Sport Wales, added: ‘We are pleased that Welsh Government have taken the strategic decision to provide investment into the development of the Physical Literacy Programme for Schools. Our School Sport Survey clearly identified that if we are going to achieve a more active population we have to be ensuring that every child is confident in their physical abilities from an early age. Through creating enjoyable, skills based learning I believe that we can create a step change in sports participation in Wales.’

‘The Welsh Government made the ambitious statement that physical literacy should be as important as reading and writing and this funding to develop a physical literacy framework and support schools to deliver the best possible PE experience is a vital step in that direction. The PE and School Sport programme made significant strides in improving the delivery of PE in schools and we believe that this new programme will take provision to the next level.’