Opening Schools Facilities

Opening Schools Facilities (OSF) is a Department for Education (DfE) school funding programme to meet the goals of the Government’s School Sport and Activity Action Plan (SSAAP). The aim is to help schools to open their existing sport facilities, including school swimming pools, for a broader range of young people and to support the wider community by partnering with sporting organisations, who can help deliver activities in these settings. 

Aims and Objectives 

‘Opening school facilities outside of the normal school day to school and community users, to create sustainable change in increased physical activity levels’. 

 Programme Objectives 

1. To support schools to open their facilities outside of the normal school day (before school, evenings, weekends, and holidays) 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. This means new and additional extra-curricular activities are eligible. 
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. 

Herts Sport & Physical Activity Partnership (HSP) is focusing its efforts on schools that meet one of these target audiences: pupil catchment or within Active Local area, SEND focus, Educational Support Centres (ESC) and women and girls.  

In Year 1 of the programme, HSP has worked with 37 schools across Hertfordshire to develop new and more attractive offers to pupils and the wider community to be active in the local community: 

• 10 Primary  
• 27 Secondary 
• 1 ESC
• 3 Specialist Provision Schools

View the funding for Opening Schools Facilities and other funding for educational settings.