A secondary school will continue to run a county-wide sports competition until a more sustainable funding model can be found. 

Uppingham Community College (UCC) stepped into the breach last autumn after a restructure at Rutland County Council left the Rutland School Sports Partnership and a number of inter schools' competitions at risk. 

UCC employed the school sport manager who had been made redundant by the local authority and so all of the usual games were able to go ahead. Currently not all Rutland schools pay into the programme and use sports funding for their own internal competitions. 

At last week's schools' forum (June 19) UCC executive headteacher Ben Solly, said the intention had been to hold meetings this term to help all Rutland schools to try to come up with a new model which would secure the future of the partnership, but last minute funding announcements by the government and Sport England – which is funded by government and the National Lottery – have meant the discussions have not happened. Therefore, UCC will continue to run the school sports partnership for the coming academic year. 

Mr Solly said: "The intention was we would maintain that provision for 2024/25 and then convene all stakeholders later in this academic year, spring term and summer term to consider a range of options that we would then hopefully agree could then be delivered in a sustainable offer. The issue of sustainability is a key one. The school sports programme has lived hand to mouth for its entire existence really, since the original structure was broken up. In effect the funding guarantees have only been given at really late notice and year on year, so it is only an extension, which makes it difficult to plan. 

He continued: "The problem we have though is if we actually want to achieve a collective agreement to further enhance what we have in Rutland, we want to involve all schools and therefore we have currently got a bit of a fractured system where there is certain inequalities across the county and that means different children in different schools get different provision.  

"What we would quite like to do is to come to a place where all schools are involved in that so that the children and young people in Rutland get an equitable offer and it is coordinated in a sustainable way, where we are not always waiting on tenterhooks to see if the funding is extended." 

At the meeting it was clear there are tensions, as some Rutland schools do not opt into the school sports partnership. 

Headteacher of Leighfield Primary School Sarah Eaton, which is part of the Discovery Schools Learning Trust along with UCC, said 'presumably what we need to identify is why currently not all schools are paying into the partnership'. Mr Solly if they were able to 'overcome the barriers' they could get a collective agreement. 

The Rutland Learning Trust, which has 13 primary schools in the county, is not a member and at the meeting, chief executive Rob Gooding, said: "I don't understand why it is not free to our schools? That's our argument. We provide sport free to our schools. I think there are enough funds that come into the local authority to provide that as a free service.  

"Take our trust and times that by 13, that means I would be handing over £26,000 to get nothing more than what we already get.  

"What we don't want is duplication of festivals. There is enough pressure on revenue budgets, I don't understand what we have to pay someone. I think it is an admin task, I don't think it is a lead professional. It just feels like we are trying to establish an organisation or a programme around significant individuals rather than what's in the best interests of children.  

"If we paid into that programme it means we would be involved in another 30 events and we can't do all the events that we organise."