A couple of misguided bits of information from the coalition-

the money does not exist anymore, ringfenced or otherwise, it's gone from the school budget completely.

Michael gove is trying to hang the ssp's with this 2 in 5 figure (when he said 1 he misquoted himself!) this relates to regular competition which translates to a child competing 12 times at least in a year, a rediculous goal which should never have been set, children doing 11 who access school club links in the community would not count.

However politicians always interprate the figures to suit their agenda as we know, as not once have they consulted the Youth Sport Trust and Sue Campbell nor have they visited a school sport partnership.

450 partnerships nationally cost 160million a year, peanuts in comparison to the national debt, and what will also cost the nation in future through poor health and crime etc, prevention is better than the cure.

An SSP consists of a development manager, competition manager, a school sport coordinator in each high school (usually 7) for 2 days a week and a pe coordinator in each primary (usually up to 50 per SSP) released 12 days a year to provide opportunities and transition work with the high school.

Ssp's have seen the 25% of children doing 2hrs of PE a week rise to 90% in 5 years, schools who are judged almost soley on maths and English results by Ofsted will increase these subject lessons to the detrement of pe.

The highest improvements in academic attainment are Sports Colleges, as sport improves this along with the agendas mentioned earlier.

Millions more children are active in a sport for all plan we now have, hundreds of thousands of young people are sports leaders, competions now extend to national levels in a wider number of sports, gifted and talented programme run, coaching nutrition education....the list goes on.

These things will not happen when the funding is cut, it doesn't take a genious to realise the impact of that on so many social agendas.

This is not just opinion and manipulating figures like a politician, I have worked in sport development for 10 years, coach on Leeds scholarship, club level and service area and seen the impact on young children this has.

If my job goes but the partnerships stay I'll be happy, as I believe fully in what we have achieved. This isn't about my job.

A couple of fundamentals:

Sport in School is very important (competitive or otherwise) as it gives kids exercise, discipline and structure.

Reduction in Expenditure has got to be made, the Country as a whole is living beyond its means.

How you rationalise the two is a bit beyond me, although there must be areas where we can reduce spending without necessarily compromising quality too much.

Here's a radical idea, why dont we ask the people doing the job how we could improve the output for less cost?

Exactly right Batley, we accept the fact that cuts were going to be made, but not to be scrapped completely. And we were not consulted.

I could give a number of senarios where we could cut funding, possibly half it, the impact wouldn't be the same but many projects could continue to run.

I can't begin to a full picture of the impact ssp's have made on here, but the national petition was started by a 16 year old sports leader, who writes that sport made her confident and changed her as a person, as Nelson Mandela said 'sport has the power to change lives'. the millions signing the petition certainly care.

And there you have it. Our school sports teams were run by the PE teachers, various interested teachers who gave up a couple of hours of their spare time, and the school janitor! In fact the jani's team, which he was in charge of from Under 12 through to Under 16, were one of the most successful football teams in the history of the school.

No SSP...no partnerships...no £160 million budget, just ordinary people with an interest in promoting sporting excellence in the kids at their school.

All a far cry from the headmaster at my son's school 15 years ago, when I asked him why there was no sports day, replied...."Competitive games mean that for every winner there has to be a loser, and we don't want any of our children to feel disadvantaged!" This was the same guy who sold 3 out of the 4 school playing fields fields a couple of years later to developers, with the result that there was only 6 weeks each per year of football, rugby,or hockey able to be played on the remaining pitch.

You're a bit late in closing the stable door Seth, that particular socialist horse bolted long ago.

Best of luck though in your job search.

I can see the points you make and agree that sport is important however regardless of the petition I cannot see any difference being made. In difficult times with the whole country struggling ideal things need to be cut to in order that key services can be provided. In this current climate key services are being cut and will struggle so I cannot see how money can be spent on things like this

Anyone who has ever provided a service to a central or local government department will be able to tell you several excellent ways that they can cut costs, negotiating properly and professionally with their suppliers is only one of them - even the people who work within central and local government departments can tell you several ways that they can all cut costs, I've dealt with many such departments over the past 20 years and if I couldn't cut 25% of the overheads in any of them without reducing standards then I'd be a sorry business person.

you couldn't be more wrong, teachers still take teams but the man power does not exist to cater for so many teams, diverse sports and competitions to organise without the partnerships. And primary school is non existant without the partnerships not just my 'opinion' but that of the primary teachers.

The figures of children now in sport due to the ssp's speak for themselves, it's massive.

Some of the posts on this thread have highlighted such an old fashioned view of school and community sport. But what would I know, I'm only involved in it every day and speak to people accross the country doing the same, seriously, some of the ignorance is unbelievable. Some though have posted comments which show more up to date insight.

And which party complained about it?

Politics is a strange beast, seems things work two opposite ways, when you are in power and when you're not.

FWIW I didn't agree with seeling sports fields either.

If the government is going to cut this it might be nice if they offered incentives to sports clubs, we are struggling at the moment with facilities and money for training equipment and coaching courses. There is no rugby of any kind done at any schools in our town, our club runs it all - from 5 to adult age groups. That's hundreds of kids.

Looks like a short term cut then pick up the tab much later when loads more people are a drain on the NHS because of the obesity problems.

Wonder how many of those kids will take to hanging around on street corners getting into trouble once these opportunities are gone?

Still, it won't affect me...

I have just been at a Primary schools multi sport activity, held at the hub high school for all their feeder primarys. 400 children attending throughout the day doing activities such as Frisbee, table tennis, Boccia, dance mats and more, all coached by year 10 leaders trained by the partnership. last night we had year 5/6 Sports Hall Athletics for 200 children, and tonight the same event for 200 year 3/4s. In the week the cuts were announced we had over 600 key stage 1 & 2 children doing cross country, 150 doing mini Hockey, 60 doing a table tennis competition and nearly 100 at a tag rugby competition. This is just a very small picture of the work done by just 2 ssps over 6 days.

These children will access other days like this in the year run by the School Sport Coordinators and the ssp, these things will not happen without funding. Sport in schools now goes way beyond rugby, football and netball fixtures.

School sport through the ssps is a massive success.

Oh really? Well far be it for me to pish on your campfire, but what I'm reading is increasingly looking like a thinly disguissed attempt at job justification. And it looks like the penny has dropped in Westminster that £160 million could be better spent eleswhere. Let's hope their beady eye is about to fall on those in the social workers fraternity next.

Kids have always enjoyed sport. You may now have a broader spectrum, but you didn't invent the concept of organised sport Seth. Admittedly we never did boccia ...not too sure about dance mats either....our mats were used for gymnastics. In your original statement you seemed to think it worthy of comment that school kids now do 2 hours of sport every week!

Well, that's the PE we used to do, plus an hour of football/rugby/cricket practice at least once a week after school. We then used to turn out to play for the school on a Saturday morning and for a local team in the afternoon. That was also after attending Scouts or the Boy's Brigade on an activity full Friday night. A few even managed to attend an Athletic club!

And guess what Seth, all this competitive activity was arranged, not with 100's of managers with a multi million pound budget, but someone simply picking up a phone and getting things organised with their opposite number! School sport for those who took part was always a great success. Sports day was also another.

Old fashioned it might have been, but the proof of such a simplistic pudding produced..... our only football World Cup win...the 1st British club to lift the European Cup...1977 Wimbledon win....Olympic Gold medals etc etc.

The rest of the time we used to hang around street corners, yes, even the fat kids.

And as my youngest daughter is a primary school teacher, I am well aware of the thinking amongst staff, in these nanny state days for the lack of activities or out of school. If the Head teacher is not keen, it simply doesn't happen.

Come back Seth when your multi million pound budget can better the above results. I'll buy you a pint and tell you about the old days.....like when Yorkshire had a cricket team, and Leeds United were the kings of Europe....

Not alot to add other than I agree with the above

I believe the Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band were on the outlook for trumpet players.... their search could be over!

I, of course credit you with a far higher appreciation of frisbees and boccia, and applaud your enthusiastic support of both.

No really.

Might I also suggest though, that you run any job applications through a spell checker, and maybe have someone proof read it before you pop it in the post?

After all, professional standards must be maintained.