Score schools on sports, urges Team Rishi

SCHOOLS are to be rated by Ofsted on their sport offering, under Rishi Sunak’s plans to boost children’s exercise.

The former chancellor said that as prime minister he would ask the education watchdog to mark schools on the quality of their PE classes.

Under his proposals, it would become mandatory for Ofsted inspectors to grade schools on their sports lessons.

Mr Sunak made the disclosure in a letter to the Football Association, the Rugby Football League, British Tennis, England Rugby, and the England and Wales Cricket Board. He was responding to a joint letter, from the chief executives of the five sporting bodies, which called for the next prime minister to prioritise sporting opportunities

for children. They say they would be in favour of giving Ofsted “a greater remit on school sport”. In Mr Sunak’s letter he pledged to instruct Ofsted to mark primary and secondary schools on whether children are getting a “rich array of sporting opportunities”.

In 2020, The Daily Telegraph launched a “Keep Kids Active” campaign urging the Government to ensure children’s physical activity levels did not plummet in the pandemic. A study published this year found children’s physical activity levels were below national guidelines even after Covid restrictions were lifted in Britain.

“There is a longstanding concern that sport isn’t measured or assessed by Ofsted so it is an easy thing for schools to push out of the school day,” a source from Mr Sunak’s campaign said.

Geoff Barton, of the Association of School and College Leaders, said that while he welcomed the focus on sport, “the answer will not be more Ofsted inspections” but instead trusting teachers to free up time by having fewer academic tests.

Mr Sunak is also drawing up plans to open up school sports facilities over the summer holidays. “About 40 per cent of sports facilities are behind school gates – it doesn’t make sense that... during the summer holidays they are all locked up,” the campaign source added.

40pc

The proportion of sports facilities behind school gates during summer holidays. Rishi Sunak wants more to stay open