CUTS to sports funding affecting 19,000 state school pupils in Oxford would be a “huge backwards step”, PE teachers warned last night.

Childhood obesity will worsen and the potential 2012 Olympics legacy will tail off as grants to the Oxford and Thame School Sports Partnership dry up, it was claimed.

The organisation, which offers competitive sport to all state school children in the city, was told by the Government its annual £250,000 payment will not be renewed and its activities could end by Easter.

The partnership began four years ago and includes Cheney, Cherwell, St Gregory the Great, Oxford School and the Oxford Academy, as well as every primary and special school in the city. Also involved is specialist sports college Lord Williams’s School in Thame.

The partnership’s mission, according to development manager Margaret Stevens, is to “improve the quality and quantity of school sport within the curriculum and beyond”.

But Mrs Stevens said: “We have been told the funding won’t be renewed and it is due to run out in August 2011.

“But there is also no certainty we will get February’s payment. If we don’t get that, the partnership would have to stop doing a lot of the things we do by Easter.

“We’ve already got an obesity problem in our schools and without people like the School Sports Partnership to keep raising the profile it can only get worse.

“It’s also hard to convince schools to support the Olympics when the funding enabling them to do that is no longer there.

“We know we’re in a tight fix in terms of money and something had to give, but it seems short-sighted in terms of our children’s futures.”

When the partnership began, 45 per cent of pupils were involved in intra-school competitions. That figure rose to 63 per cent in June 2010.

During the same period, the number of pupils doing inter-school events rose from 28 per cent to 37 per cent.

Funding comes in three-year cycles, with the current one ending in August, but payments are delivered twice a year.

The partnership received its last grant in October.

The organisation funds a member of each secondary school PE department to work as a school sports co-ordinator for two days a week.

In addition, each primary or special school has a nominated member of staff who liaises with the secondary schools. The partnership also offers training for primary-school teachers who have not had specific PE coaching.

Mrs Stevens said: “Without people to co-ordinate these events I fear it’s going to be a huge step backwards. I think it’s a fairly grim picture.”

Members of the Oxford and Thame School Sports Partnership are lobbying headteachers with their concerns and a petition is being sent to Downing Street by Young Olympic Ambassadors from every school in the country.

Gymnast Beth Tweddle talked about the importance of school sports when she visited Cherwell School yesterday.

The Commonwealth gold medallist, pictured with pupils, was part of a ‘power of dreams’ roadshow.

She said: “Sport in general is very important to young people.

“There are the health benefits but also the friendship side of things, where kids from different backgrounds can learn things about each other.

“All the kids I speak to are so excited about the Olympics.”

She added: “There will be issues about funding but I think local communities and businesses will step forward and help towards these schemes.

“Hopefully there is enough enthusiasm to keep organised sport going for young people. Hopefully there are ways round it.”

Miss Tweddle, 25, is Britain’s most successful gymnast ever and competed at the 2004 and 2008 Olympics. She was awarded an MBE, and won two silvers and a gold at the Manchester Commonwealth Games in 2002.

She is world and European champion on the uneven bars.