The Winter School Games takes place at the Sportspark where swimming, hockey, table tennis and sports hall athletics made up the final day of the event and gave a chance for participants to meet Paralympic silver medallist Mel Clarke. PHOTO BY SIMON FINLAY

School sports bosses in Norfolk have welcomed a government injection of cash – but warned that headteachers must think carefully to get value from the windfall.

A fund of £150m a year has been made available by the government to transform primary school sports, build the legacy of London 2012 and inspire the Olympic and Paralympic champions of the future.

Norfolk schools are set to share 3.1m under the scheme, made up of a lump sum for each school and a top-up fee for every pupil, which is ring-fenced and can only be spent on sport.

Rob McCombe, partnership manager at the West Norwich and Dereham School Sports Partnership, said the figure was higher than many had been expecting, but that the lasting legacy of the money was dependent upon how wisely headteachers spent it.

“The next steps are going to dictate what the legacy looks like in Norfolk,” he said.

“One of the fears I have is that there’s lots of cash in the system, and that will bring out lots of people who are interested in chasing the money.

“People will be looking to get more business from schools, so there are opportunities but headteachers must look at whether it is best value for money.”

Schools will be given a lump sum of £8,000 and then £5 per pupil, meaning that an average school with 250 pupils will receive £9,250 – enough to fund a teacher or coach for two days a week, ensuring every pupils can do sport with a specialist, says the government.

The money can be spent on specialist coaching and teacher training, sports programmes, Change4Life sports clubs or on after-school or weekend competitions.

Sports governing bodies and voluntary organisations will also be offered a greater role to help increase specialist coaching and skills development.

Mr McCombe said that schools could team up together to maximise their purchasing power, but that a priority had to be on ensuring teachers were correctly trained.

“Skilling of the workforce is important, and improving the quality of coaching by teachers. I’d like to see schools using the money to provide better quality PE provision by the staff they’ve got,” he said.

“The money will go, but the lasting legacy will be teachers who have the confidence to teach better PE.

“There is an opportunity to drive it forward and create a better offer for Norfolk.”