THE new school year signalled big changes for sport in schools.

The Torbay Sports Partnership, based at Paignton Community and Sports College, lost some valued staff when the money ran out.

Education Secretary Michael Gove pulled the plug on the School Sports Partnership scheme worth £330,000.

Out went the full-time development manager and assistants and funding for the school sports co-ordinators in each of the Bay's seven secondary schools.

In its place has come the School Games programme.

It pays for £23,800 to fund a part-time school games organiser and gives £7,600 directly to schools to release a PE teacher one day a week to work with a team of primary schools.

But crucially, this cash for primary schools is not ring-fenced and is about half the rate that was available before.

Jane English, principal of Paignton Community and Sports College, said: "The partnership was absolutely terrific. It was a really good programme which gave children wonderful opportunities to take part in sport to improve their health and wellbeing.

"Now, there are fewer opportunities for our children, we have lost good people, lost the expertise and there is not as much time to organise opportunities."

The School Games has been billed as a 'unique opportunity' to motivate and inspire millions of young people across the country to take part in more competitive school sport.

The games are made up of four levels of activity: competition in schools, between schools, at county level and a national finals event that will be held at Wembley and at the Olympic Park.

But for Roger Mann, chairman of Torbay Sports Council, the problem lies in the emphasis on 'competitive sport'.

He says sport should be about improving health and wellbeing for everyone.

It is about having a go or taking part. not whether you are good or not.

He said minor sports that children had enjoyed under the old scheme, like boccia, dodgeball or mountain biking will be lost in the narrower remit.

He explained: "My overall feeling is by cutting down the numbers of sports available, the number of sports that will engage young people is lessened.

"Not a lot of people are engaged in the five premier sports and, if they don't enjoy those, the likelihood they will go through life without sport."

Mr Mann said individual schools may still have the money and time to include minor sports in their curriculum but the large-scale investment will be lost.

He said: "It seems to me these are the sorts of sports that children may enjoy and engage in."

"Our aim as a sports council is to get people participating in all sorts of sports.

"It is unhelpful to find certain competitive sports are being isolated from the others.

"It is a pity because we already know children enjoy playing football, and those children who do always will, but that does not mean we can afford to lose the broader spectrum of sports, the types of sports that interest those children who are not sporty in the traditional sense."

The new School Games organiser is Debbie Speed, based at Paignton Community College.

She said the school games still have a lot to offer and key to its aims is getting less-active children involved.

Initiatives include the Change for Life classes in 11 primary schools and the Young Ambassadors programme.

She said: "I think there is still a lot there but people have less time and there are less people."

She said staff still had the benefit of learning from the old system.

"That work carried out by the old style of partnership is still embedded in the schools and there are a number of staff who are carrying on that work."

But the fact the cash for day release in schools is no longer ring-fenced is a problem, said Ms Speed.

She said: "The cash is not ring-fenced and the individual schools have approached that in different ways.

"It is a fundamental problem with the pressures on budget that schools are facing.

"It is about maintaining that goodwill for this project."

Ms English said she was concerned the Torbay Sports Partnership had been weakened by the changes.

She said: "Torbay used to have this fantastic sports partnership, the issue is it is a much watered-down version with a slightly different emphasis.

"There is not as much time or resources for the input that we had previously and the children of Torbay are not getting as much as they did previously.

"And, of course, there is concern about what happens after 2015.

"It would be a tragedy for the children of Torbay if this funding, even in this form, did not continue."