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How to spend your sports premium funding in 2025

Sports premium funding is a valuable grant for primary schools in England, helping to increase the least active pupils and improve health lifestyles in children.

We break down all you need to know about PE and sports funding for 2025.

What is sports premium funding 2025?

Sports premium funding is designed to help schools encourage pupils to be more healthy and active. Introduced in 2013, PE and sports premium is given to primary schools each year.

Sports premium funding should be used to improve PE and active provision in your school in a sustainable way.

This may be done by:

• Increasing the opportunity for pupils to access sport and exercise for at least 2 hours per week
• Offering a wide range of active extracurricular activities (especially to those who are least active)
• Addressing and improving the equal access to sport for girls and boys.

Which schools get PE and sports premium funding?

Sports premium funding is only given to primary schools. Targeting younger pupils aims to increase physical activity and participation in sports at a young age.

Your school will be eligible for PE and sports funding if you are a:

Maintained school

Academy or free school

Special school

Non-maintained special school

Pupil Referral Uni (PRU)

General hospital

Primary independent schools are not eligible for PE and sports funding from the Department for Education (DfE).

The 5 priorities of Sports Premium Funding

The DfE have identified 5 key priorities:

1. To increase staff confidence, knowledge and skills in teaching PE and sport
2. To increase the engagement of all pupils in physical activity
3. To raise the profile of PE and sport across the school
4. To broaden the range of sports and physical activities, pupils receive
5. To increase competitive sport participation

Want to know more about increasing girls’ participation and enjoyment in sport? Check out our recent interview with the England Girls’ Talent Pathway Officer.

How much do schools get for sports premium funding?

Allocation of the PE and sports funding is based on the number of pupils you have from Year 1- Year 6 (EYFS not included in PE funding). If you have split year groups, the number of children aged 5-10 will be counted from the January census. This year, it uses the January 2023 census data.

The 2025/2026 amounts for PE and sports premium are:

• Small schools with less than 16 pupils will receive £1000 per pupil
• Larger schools (classed as 17 pupils and more) will receive £16,000 and then £10 per pupil after that

For example, if your school has 230 pupils on roll (between the ages of 5 and 10), it will receive £18,130 for sports premium funding.

When does sports premium need to be spent by in 2025?

All schools (including academies and free schools) will receive the funding around the same time.

October or November is the first instalment (7/12 of the funding).  The final allocation comes in April 2025, the remaining 5/12 of the funding.

If we use the example above for a school with 230 pupils on roll, the Winter term instalment will have been £10,575 and the Spring instalment will be £7,554.

The deadline for spending your PE and sports premium funding is July 31st, 2025. You cannot carry over any funding into the next year. An accountability report should be published on your website by that date.

PE and sports funding report must cover the following accordingly:

• The amount your school received
• Demonstrate the allocation of the funding. Including justification if needed.
• Details of the measurable impact of the funding on pupils’ PE attainment, physical activity and sports participation due to the spending
• Explanation of how the improvements will be sustainable in the future
• The percentage of pupils in year 6 who have met the national standards for water safety as well as swimming requirements

What can sports premium funding be spent on in 2025?

To ensure the funding is used to improve sport participation sustainably, there are conditions in place for spending the funding.

The main focuses are:

• Building capacity and capability within your school, to consequently ensure improvements benefit pupils in future years
• Developing the PE, physical activity or sport activities you already offer

There are limitations to what your school can spend the funding on.

You can spend it on:

• Staff CPD, mentoring, training as well as resources to make sure the future quality of the teaching of sport is sustainable
• Embedding physical activity to the school day with active travel
• Encouraging active break times
• Providing focused activities to increase participation from the least active children (this includes increasing girls’ participation in sport)
• Helping to provide equal access for all pupils for a range of sports and physical activities
• Raising the attainment of swimming for those who have not achieved the national standard after they have completed the core swimming lessons

Your school must not use the funding for:

• Capital expenditure (except for goods that are below your schools’ de minimis value)
• Employing coaches to take PE lessons (this should be from the school’s core budget)
• Teaching the minimum requirements of the national curriculum, e.g. core swimming lessons
• Paying for subscriptions and invoices in advance for services to be used in coming years
• Buying staff PE kit

What is capital expenditure for schools?

Capital expenditure is defined as “The purchase of an asset (tangible or intangible), or expenditure which adds to/enhances and not merely maintains the value of an existing asset”.

However, not all equipment will be classed as capital expenditure. contact our sales team to discuss the sports premium packages we can organise for your school.

How can Fawns help?

Playtime by Fawns has helped countless schools spend their PE and sports premium funding effectively.

Our brand new brochure is available for schools to see the full range of our stock; request your free brochure today and transform your playground.

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