The annual survey that showed a fifth of British primary school children participating in circus skills is no more.
 
The annual PE and School Sports Survey has come to an end after seven years, a victim of the public spending cuts along with the School Sport Partnership which it monitored. The programme cost £162 million a year: the survey £329,275 in 2009-10.
 
One charm of the survey was the unusual sports it revealed were being pursued in schools. As well as circus skills (19 per cent of primary schools) and cheerleading (33 per cent of primary schools, 62 per cent of secondaries) there was Boccia (22 per cent of secondaries) and Kabbadi (7 per cent of secondaries).
 
What’s Boccia? It’s a form of bowls originally designed for the disabled, now more widely played. Kabbadi (pictured) is a tag/martial arts game originating in South Asia. Both sound fun, in their different ways.
 
The loss of the survey will make it harder to hold the Government to its promise to support sport in schools. Its final report shows continuing growth in participation – and a slightly implausible hike in the proportion of pupils registered as gifted or talented at sport, which has more than doubled from 3 per cent in 2003-04 to 8 per cent in 2009-10.