Pressure from pupils in Stone has helped to force a U-turn from the Government on plans to scrap school sport partnerships (SSPs).
Education Secretary Michael Gove revealed proposals last month to axe the £162 million-a-year project as part of wider plans to reduce public spending. But his announcement sparked a campaign to fight the cuts, which was taken up by school children from across Staffordshire and South Cheshire.
Earlier this month, petitions with more than 11,000 names were pulled together by SSP groups in Stone, Stoke-on-Trent, Stafford and Sandbach which called on David Cameron to rethink the measure. Pupils at Stone schools collected signatures from parents at the school gates.
St Michael’s First School headteacher Mary Gale said last month: “Axing the funding for school sports partnerships will directly affect children and many initiatives and programmes will have to stop.”
Yesterday Mr Gove announced that instead of cutting the programme outright, he would free up £47 million to allow partnerships to continue up to the end of the academic year in summer 2011. After that a further £65 million of funding will be made available to promote competitive sports in schools over the coming three years.
