The School Sport Coaching programme is one of 10 strands which make up the new PE and Sport Strategy for Young People (PESSYP) which builds on the previous PE, School Sport and Club Links (PESSCL) Strategy. The aim of the programme is to create a step change in the recruitment, training and deployment of sports coaches working in school sport. It also aims to increase the number of coaching hours delivered through school sport by 675,000 hours per year.
The focus of the School Sport Coaching programme
The coaches are expected to support participation in out of school hours settings at a school site. They will be positioned to support participation of the 'sporty' young people into the fifth hour of participation per week and into the fourth and fifth hour of participation for the top half of the 'semi-sporty' type. The coaches will also be focussed into the targeted sections of the five hour offer based on their partnership's Evaluation and Priorities Document (EPD).
Funding for the programme
Funding for the School Sport Coaching programme will be available to school sport partnerships from September 2008. The payment for the coaching will be included in the school sport partnerships annual grant. Partnerships will be asked to develop a simple plan which will be based on the priorities arising through their self-evaluation process. The funding will be based on a rolling programme of top-up grants that the school sport partnership will receive each year for three years, with the funding being confirmed year on year. Every school sport partnership will receive this funding and it supersedes the existing DCSF Community Sports Coach funding.
Coach numbers and management
The national model will see each school sport partnership employing five coaches to deliver a total of 1500 coaching hours over the year. The delivery of school sport coaching hours will be managed by the Partnership Development Manager (PDM) or another lead for coaching from within the school sport partnership.
School Sport Coaching website
The Youth Sport Trust, in conjunction with Sport England and Sports Coach UK have developed an online reporting tool for school sports coaches to submit information on the coaching sessions that have been completed, and report to the local PDM and School Sports Partnership. Click here to visit the website.