Uncategorized – Page 2 – English Schools' Football Association

With the 2024 Schools’ Football Week campaign, in partnership with Pro:Direct Sport, all over for another year, The English Schools’ FA (ESFA) take a look back at the week that saw over 260,000 pupils from over 1200 schools take part in schools’ football activity from 5 – 11th February

ESFA Live Draws

To kick off the SFW celebrations, The ESFA streamed its quarter and semi-final draws of the 34 PlayStation Schools’ Cup and Arnold Clark Schools’ Cup competitions to an audience of over 6,000 viewers. The draws, featuring over 200 school teams from U12 – U18 were shown from 5pm on the ESFA’s YouTube channel, ESFA TV.

Schools’ Football Week Big Competition

The ESFA, along with Schools’ Football Week partners Pro:Direct Sport, ran the Schools’ Football Week Big Competition , challenging pupils to design their very own England shirts. The ESFA and Pro:Direct team have seen lots of exciting designs being submitted during Schools’ Football Week and it will be a big challenge to choose a winner. The competition remains open to entries so make sure to submit yours to memberservices@prodirectsport.com before 5pm on Friday 16th February.

The winners will be announced on or around 28th February so make sure to keep an eye out to see if your design has been shortlisted.

Schools’ Football Week on social media

The ESFA was once again overwhelmed to see the amount of Schools’ Football Week activity taking place in schools across the country. From classroom decorations, inter-house matches, keepy-uppy competitions and visits from professional footballers, it has been amazing to see over 260,000 pupils getting involved in Schools’ football week this year. Take a look at some of the best bits below:

Additional campaign highlights

As part of the Schools’ Football Week celebrations, England Lioness and current PlayStation Schools’ Cup Ambassador Chloe Kelly hosted a PE session at Irlam & Cadishead Academy in Manchester along with her fellow ambassador SV2. When interviewed during the visit, Chloe Kelly described how she played for both the girls’ & boys’ football teams at school. The English Schools’ FA has records of Chloe representing her school, Elthorne Park High School’s girls’ football teams at both U15 and U16 in 2012 and 2013, in the ESFA National Schools’ Cup competitions, with Kelly recorded as scoring several goals in National Cup fixtures.

The ESFA team visited Hawbush Primary School in Dudley to gain some insight into what they were up to for Schools’ Football Week 2024. Salford FC defender, Curtis Tilt, gave a great presentation to the pupils on his career and conducted a Q&A session with the children involved. The school had also been giving lessons on “giving racism the red card” and decorated their classrooms in the colours of professional football clubs in their area.

To round off Schools’ Football Week 2024 the England U15 Schoolgirls and England U18 Schoolboys travelled to St George’s Park for their preparatory training camps and were presented with their brand new Arnold Clark branded England shirts. For a full roundup of the training camps, click here.

The ESFA’s ambition is to continue to grow Schools’ Football Week year on year, but also use key data received from the 1,200+ schools that register their interest to find ways to create new and additional activity for those schools that are passionate about providing these opportunities to children, particularly within girls’ football.

The Association would like to thank all of the schools, teachers, Associations, Community Trusts and players that supported the 2024 campaign and look forward to seeing how Schools’ Football Week will continue to tell stories of schools’ football in 2024 and increase activity once again for February 2025.

Photo credit: 353 Photography

The English Schools' FA

The National Governing Body for Schools’ Football in England.

The English Schools’ Football Association (ESFA) is delighted to announce the return of its Reward and Recognition campaign, for the second season in 23/24

Reward and Recognition, which was first introduced last season, provides the Association with the opportunity to celebrate the work of ESFA volunteers across the country in a way that hasn’t been explored before. The 22/23 campaign was highly successful, with hundreds of nominations across the award categories and unprecedented numbers of voters getting caught up in the action.

The campaign allows the ESFA to both reward and recognise volunteers in a new way. The ongoing growth and success of schools’ football is down to the dedication and hard work of an army of volunteers across England. It is the intention that the scheme will both celebrate the achievements of those who are already doing so much and also inspire others to get involved in activity in their own area.

How it works

Recognition

The ESFA’s volunteer workforce spans across the country and collectively, these volunteers – from Association Secretaries, Child Welfare Officers to Team Managers and School Teachers – create a vast landscape of schools’ football activity, positively benefitting hundreds of thousands of children each season.

The ESFA is committed to highlighting activity from local Associations and bringing it to the forefront of ESFA communications to celebrate the achievements of schools’ football at a local level and to inspire others to create similar levels of activity in their own areas.

This season, the ESFA is launching its “Spotlight On” campaign, which is designed to feature local activity from Associations across England and to increase engagement with those who take part, with a view to increasing ESFA Association activity further, on a national scale. You can view our first instalment of Spotlight On, which focuses on the activity created in Berkshire below.

The ESFA’s long-standing “Long Service Awards” will also now be absorbed by the R&R campaign, bringing greater recognition to those who have dedicated impressive periods of time to supporting and creating Schools’ Football. The awards for the 22/23 season were announced during the ESFA’s November AGM and were presented as follows:

25 Year Award:

Mr G Murphy from Consett Schools’ FA

Lifetime Achievement Award

Mr C Newman from Northumberland County Schools’ FA
Mr M Brass from Stevenage & District Primary Schools’ FA
Mr N Pont from Northumberland County Schools’ FA, West Tyne Schools’ FA, South Northumberland Schools’ FA and East Northumberland Schools’ FA
Mr P Tracey from Northumberland County Schools’ FA
Mr T Martin from Hertfordshire County Schools’ FA and Hitchin & District Schools’ FA
Mr S Turpin from Bexley Primary Schools’ FA

The ESFA Long Service Awards have been updated for the 22/23 season onwards, with a “˜Lifetime Achievement Award’ being added as a real landmark achievement for volunteers.

Reward

The ESFA will be launching its award categories at the start of 2024, ready to receive nominations for Association volunteers and school teachers alike, that create inspirational activity for children in England.

We are delighted that this year, the Reward & Recognition Awards will feature their own awards ceremony in the Summer and provide an opportunity for volunteers to come together with other likeminded individuals to celebrate all things “˜Schools’ Football’.

We know that many volunteers don’t give their time to benefit themselves and would rather have their teams benefit from rewards. The ESFA is keen to try and provide awards that recognise the achievements of all and that are also able to support ongoing work and activity.

Look out for further information in the coming weeks.

All season long

We know that volunteers work hard all season round and it may be difficult to quantify their achievements in line with our predefined award categories. So, this season, we would like to invite Associations to let us know when someone that volunteers for you has gone above and beyond or done something truly special in your area. This will help us to tell stories of voluntary success throughout the year, helping to build the picture of activity across the country. We will also collate all the stories we receive throughout the season and put them forward to be judged for the ESFA’s Special Achievement Award, which will celebrate these achievements in a one-off award presentation in the summer.