On the 8^th July the Children's Minister Edward Timpson addressed the Association for Physical Education (AfPE) at St George's Park, England's National Football Centre.

As well as stressing the utmost importance of encouraging physical activity at an early age, he emphasised some key areas for a sustainable plan for school sport. Below are some highlights:

- Primary schools need the flexibility to choose how best to spend the sport premium on boosting PE teaching and participation levels.

- The Sport Premium is bringing primary and secondary schools closer together

- There must be a focus on targeting children of all abilities. This requires a cross-sector approach across education, health and social care to improve outcomes. Schools will also have to make public their commitment to serving all pupils.

- Being active at an early age is the key to competitive sport. Those schools that do best in competitive sport tend to score highly overall, as illustrated by Ofsted.

Mr Timpson provided an insight into the role that children play in achieving the current government's Olympic legacy plan. With this next year's general elections just around the corner, Sports Think Tank will have an eye on the provisions made for school sport in the upcoming 2015 party manifestos.