Opening Schools Facilities

The Opening School Facilities funding through the Department for Education, is a programme designed to meet the goals of the Government’s School Sport and Activity Action Plan. The programme objectives are:

1. To support schools to open their facilities outside of the normal school day to allow children & young people and the wider community to access more opportunities to be physically active.
2. To open school swimming pools focusing on swimming and water safety lessons both during and outside the school day for pupils at their school and for pupils at other local schools.
3. Participants are provided with a range of stimulating and enjoyable opportunities to take part in physical activity and sport, in addition to that experienced within PE lessons and extra-curricular activities.
4. Participants are signposted to take part in the same or similar activities in their local community, following the end of their participation in the programme.

Since 2023, Active Essex has funded 34 schools across Essex to run various sporting projects to meet these aims. Through the funding, there have been 23,551 children and young people and 9,988 community user’s at OSF funded sessions.

To read case studies on the funded school, please click the articles below:

If you have received Opening Schools Facilities funding, please download the brochure below to read more about opening your school facility, and to provide ideas on how you may be able to utilise funding or additional support.

Sport England have also produced useful “Use Our School” guidance which can be found here

Contact Information
For any queries or questions around the Opening Schools Facilities Funding please contact: