Sport and Schools (Hansard, 9 December 1997)

§ Mr. Spring
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (1) how many sportsmark award have been awarded in the past 12 months; [19478]
(2) how many gold star awards have been awarded since April 1997; [19479]
(3) if he will list those schools which have received sportsmark awards in the past 12 months, indicating the date of award. [19481]

§ Mr. Banks
The first round of Sportsmark and Sportsmark Gold awards were made in June this year. Three hundred and eighty-two schools achieved a Sportsmark award and a further 30 achieved a Sportsmark Gold. A full list of successful schools has today been placed in the Libraries of the House.

§ Mr. Spring
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (1) what actions he is taking arising from the audit of the in-service needs of teachers and schools undertaken by the National Coaching Foundation; [19483]
(2) what plans the National Coaching Foundation has to organise further training weeks for teachers and trainees, indicating the sports involved and the number of teachers participating. [19486]

§ Mr. Banks
The National Coaching Foundation (NCF) delivers the coaching for teachers programme on behalf of the English Sports Council (ESC). This is a four year programme. The second year of the programme will be run in spring-summer 1998.
515W
There will be coaching for teachers weeks in every Sports Council region. Sports included in the programme are cricket, hockey, swimming, athletics, football, netball, rugby and tennis. Following the evaluation of the needs of teachers and schools conducted by the NCF during the pilot scheme, two new sports, badminton and volleyball, are to be introduced in 1998, as well as sports for people with disabilities including boccia.
About, 8,000 teachers took part last year and a similar number are expected to attend in 1998.

§ Mr. Spring
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many hours of sporting opportunity per week are required to achieve a sportsmark. [19480]

§ Mr. Banks
In order to achieve a Sportsmark award schools should provide a minimum of two hours a week of timetable PE lessons for every pupil and a minimum of four hours a week of organised sport outside timetabled lessons for all interested students.

§ Mr. Spring
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (1) what has been the take-up of moneys from the Challenge Fund to assist school or club links; [19492]
(2) what steps he is taking to promote links between sporting clubs and schools. [19502]

§ Mr. Banks
One of the criteria for the Sportsmark award is for schools to develop links with a number of local sports clubs as a way of providing students with further opportunities outside school hours.
A £1 million Challenge Fund was made available in October 1996 to promote links between local schools and clubs or governing bodies of sport. Guidance was sent to all secondary schools and over 400 schools successfully applied and received financial support for local initiatives that established or strengthened the links between local schools and clubs.
The take-up of moneys in the first year of the scheme was around half a million pounds. A similar amount is budgeted for the 1997–98 academic year.