About Us
The School Sport Co-ordinator programme was first launched in September 2000 with an initial 600 School Sport Co-ordinators (SSCos) being funded through Sport England’s Lottery Fund. These were targeted at areas of greatest deprivation.
Through the PE, School Sport and Club Links (PESSCL) strategy, the government ensured that school sport partnerships are now an integral part of every LEA and school’s PE and school sport strategy. There are now over 450 partnerships with 3,200 SSCos in secondary schools and 18,000 primary or special school link teachers. This includes every maintained school in England.
School sport partnerships are families of schools that come together to enhance sports opportunities for all. A Sports College will generally be at the hub of the partnership and be given funding to employ a full time Partnership Development Manager (PDM), who is responsible for the strategic development of the partnership and liaison with other agencies. In the London Borough of Redbridge there are two partnerships based at Caterham Sports College and Mayfield School.
The Caterham Partnership includes 40 Schools: 9 Secondary, 21 Primary, 4 Junior, 4 Infant and 2 special schools. My aim is to cater for the needs of ALL schools- but it is not easy!
Each of these secondary schools has an SSCo, an existing teacher that is released from the teaching timetable for 2 days per week, who is responsible for the co-ordination and development of school sport in their own school and family of primary/special schools, their contact details can be found on the School Families page. Each of the secondary schools has a family cluster of primary and special schools that have a Primary Link Teacher (PLT), who is an existing teacher that is released from teaching for up to 10 days per year. The PLT is responsible for the development and delivery of high quality PE and sport in their school. Again, their contact details are on the School Families page.
I have had the 'honour' of being the PDM for the Caterham Partnership since its inception 2002. We started with a blank piece of paper! The work and aims have changed and we are now much more involved with the Local Authority, Physical Activity Team, School Improvement, Sports Clubs, Community Clubs, PCT, Healthy Schools, Big Lottery, Sport England, Pro active East, Competition Managers etc etc!
To give you an idea a recent day in the life of a PDM: 9-00am: a meeting with the Metropolitan Police to show our commitment to anti knife crime programme (driven through sport), 12 noon: 150 year 3 pupils competing in Sports hall Athletics guided by Sports Leaders, 6-00pm: a mother and daughter workshop (a bonding opportunity experienced through Scarabeus Aerial Theatre Company).
My ambition is that in future years any pupil that has been involved in the Partnership will not be heard to say "When I was at school I only did …………………………". We now offer pupils many opportunities to achieve different goals through our varied activities and programme's, hence our logo 'Success through Sport'.
We are 40 schools working together to improve PE and Sport.
Kay Wilding
Partnership Development Manager