Physical education, physical activity and sport in English schools

This briefing provides information on policies and practice relating to physical education, physical activity and sport in schools in England.

PE in the national curriculum

PE is a compulsory subject under the national curriculum at all key stages; National curriculum programmes of study outline what should be taught at each key stage.

Local authority-maintained schools are required to follow the national curriculum. Academies and free schools do not have to follow it but are required to provide a broad and balanced curriculum that promotes the physical development of pupils. The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 is also due to extend to the requirement to teach the national curriculum to academies, and a recent curriculum review is reshaping subject content.

Discontinuation of PE and Sport Premium

Most funding for school PE and sport comes from the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG), which is not broken down by subject or curriculum area.

Since financial year 2013-14, ring-fenced funding outside of the DSG has also been provided to primary schools through the Primary PE and Sport Premium. In 2025/26, this is around £324 million per year for primary schools.

The 2025/26 academic year is the last year of the PE and Sport Premium.

It will be replaced with a new PE and School Sport Partnerships Network:

• There will be £1bn in total over the next three years:
  • Of this, £580 million will support the new network
  • Almost £200 million will support improvements to school sports facilities
  • £100 million will be for a PE premium to support primary schools during the transition year

The network will provide universal support via online training to all schools, and targeted support for schools in most need. The new arrangements will apply to both primary and secondary schools – that is, they will have a wider scope than the current PE and sport premium, which just covers schools with primary-age pupils.

The decision to replace the PE and Sport Premium has received a mixed response. Some sports bodies, such as Sport England, the Football Association, and the Lawn Tennis Association welcomed the announcement, whilst the school leadership union, the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) said schools would be “deeply concerned at the loss of an established funding stream” at a time when budgets were already strained.

School playing fields

Regulations in place since 2012 require that suitable outdoor space must be provided by schools to enable “pupils to play outside” and “physical education to be provided to pupils in accordance with the school curriculum”.

Local authorities and schools must seek the consent of the Secretary of State when seeking to dispose of publicly funded school land, including playing fields. Guidance on the disposal of school playing fields sets out the relevant legislation and procedure relating to the disposal of school land.

2023 Sport Strategy

In August 2023, the Conservative government published a new sport strategy, Get Active: a strategy for the future of sport and physical activity. The strategy included the government’s aim to have 2.5 million more adults and 1 million more children classed as being active in England by 2030.

School Sport Action Plan

In July 2023, the then government published an updated School Sport and Activity Action Plan.

The Plan emphasises the importance of physical activity for children, including the Chief Medical Officers’ recommendation that children and young people should engage in ‘moderate-to-vigorous physical activity’ for an average of at least 60 minutes per day across the week, and that those with disabilities should engage in 20 minutes of physical activity a day.

The plan also set out the importance of equal access to sport for boys and girls.

Data on children’s physical activity levels

In December 2025 Sport England published the latest Active Lives Children and Young People Survey about the estimated activity levels of 5 to 16 year olds in England in the 2024/25 academic year.

The survey estimated that around 49% of children and young people (3.6 million) were considered “active”. This means they achieved the Chief Medical Officer’s guidelines of taking part in sport and physical activity for an average of 60 minutes or more a day. An estimated 28% did an average of less than 30 minutes per day. Sport England said these figures represented “significant progress”, especially considering the disruptive impacts of the Coronavirus pandemic.

As in previous years, the survey found that boys were more likely to be active (52%) than girls (46%), and children from the most affluent families were more likely to be active than other groups.