Category: National Schools’ Football Week

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Ex-International Star visits school for Schools’ Football Week 2022

The English Schools' FA

It’s not every day that schoolchildren get the chance to be taught by an England international but that’s what happened to pupils at Chandlers Ridge Primary in Middlesbrough.

Chandlers Ridge Primary School in Middlesbrough got Schools’ Football Week 2022 off to the best possible start on Monday 7th February with a visit from ex England International Marrie Wieczorek. Marrie was the first women born in Middlesbrough to play for her country and managed the Middlesbrough ladies team for over 20 years after her playing career.

Marrie attended the school ahead of the Lionesses’ fixture against the current Olympic Champions, Canada in the Arnold Clark Cup which is due to be played at the Riverside Stadium on 17th February. She took the pupils through a training session, testing their skills and then talked to the students about the progress of the women’s game and the amazing opportunity to watch the current stars of the game at their local ground.

Marrie said, “There are so many opportunities now, for boys and girls. They can now look to the current stars and genuinely think, “that might be me in 10-15 years’ time.” The girls especially can go to the Riverside and watch England next week knowing there is a pathway.”

Over 130,000 school children will be participating in activity during Schools’ Football Week, in association with Haier. The overall focus of the week is to introduce additional football activity into schools, whether on the field or in the classroom. However, with the ESFA reaching record levels of Girls’ National Cup entries for 21/22, the upcoming Women’s EUROs and the Arnold Clark Cup, it felt like the perfect opportunity to hone in on girls’ activity for 2022. As a result, the ESFA has registered activity taking part in Schools in England between the 7th – 13th February for over 57,000 girls.

Opportunities such as this to meet inspirational players like Marrie and to watch the current England Team compete in the Arnold Clark Cup helps to celebrate girls’ activity in schools and inspire more girls to take part moving forward.

More information on the Arnold Clarke Cup and some great offers on group booking prices can be found here.

featured, National Schools' Football Week

Throwback Thursday: A trip to King Edward VI Handsworth School for Schools’ Football Week

The English Schools' FA

On Wednesday 26th May we sent our official photographer to King Edward VI Handsworth School for Girls to cover their schools’ football week activity! This is what they got up to…

On the week of 24-28th May, King Edward VI Handsworth School for Girls (KEVI) hosted Schools’ Football Week, an official campaign that was held around the country to highlight the huge scale of Schools’ Football in England. Over 100,000 players and around 8,000 teams of children took part. At KEVI, there was a mixture of different activities and challenges for everyone, ranging from a penalty shootout competition, keepy-uppy challenge, cross bar challenge, poster competitions, football assembly and house competitions. They were also part of a special event on Wednesday 26 May called Schools Football Week- Game On! where schools from across England were invited to play Covid-safe matches and tournaments, creating the “˜world’s biggest football match!’ 

Giles Ip, PE Teacher from KEVI said “The House football events for Year 7, 8 and 9 took place in May as part of Schools’ football week and we were lucky that the weather was sunny and we were able to play each event with minimal disruption. All pupils played and took part in the competitions in very good spirits, with very positive attitudes and the level of competition was high. The football was extremely competitive, and it was so pleasing to see all our students get involved and enjoy it.”

“The Year 12’s came out victorious against the teachers in an epic battle of teacher vs students. The teachers took the lead but ended up losing 9-6 in front of a packed crowd in the sports hall.

We also held a football poster competition where students had to design a kit or poster about the benefits of football/no room for racism in football.”

Mr Ip continued, “We felt that Schools’ Football Week was a great opportunity to embrace Schools’ Football and the wellbeing benefits it provides to all pupils and players. We also ran an assembly to reflect this. It was an opportunity for everyone to get outside, have fun and enjoy being able to play football with their school friends, competitively or otherwise”.  

“We had an official photographer from the ESFA (English Schools’ Football Association) who came in to take some photographs of some of our pupils in action. We are delighted that they are going to use them on their website and social media channels!”

He added, “A huge big thank you to all those who took part, including staff who supported the activities.”

A big thank you to KEVI for allowing us to attend their school and capture their amazing Schools’ Football Week Activity, we are glad you enjoyed your events!