MORE pupils are taking up PE and sport as a result of school sport partnerships, a new survey has revealed.

The partnerships, which are spearheading the Government's strategy for PE and school sport, are groups of schools working together to increase sports opportunities for all school children.

Pupils in participating schools can choose from a wider variety of activities - the schools surveyed offer 43 different sports in total - and benefit from high quality teaching, more competition, out of school opportunities and volunteering schemes.

The survey findings - which were announced by Tessa Jowell at the annual sports college conference - showed that 68 per cent of pupils in schools that been in a partnership for three years are spending at least two hours each week on high quality PE and school sport in and after school.

It rises to 90 per cent at key stage three.

This also compares to 52 per cent for schools new to the PE and school sports programme.