Tag: primary schools

ESFA National Finals, featured, Uncategorized

ESFA Primary Finals

The English Schools' FA

On Friday 6th May 2022, Primary Schools from across England, travelled to the CBS Arena in Coventry to attend the ESFA U11 7v7 Inter-School Primary School Finals. The event saw the best primary school teams in the country competing for the title of National Champions.

The ESFA U11 7v7 Inter-School competitions have been contested across England from the start of the 2021/22 season, with teams having to progress through District, County and Regional rounds to qualify for the prestigious national final. This intense qualification process makes the achievement of competing in these National Finals, an impressive achievement for all the teams involved. Three National titles were up for grabs – the School Teams’ Cup, Girls’ Cup and Small Schools’ Cup.

The event kicked off with the group stages, where the 8 qualified teams were split into two groups. The group stages was played in a round robin format and the top two teams progressed to the knockout stages of the their respective competitions. These teams then progressed to the semi-finals and eventually the final, where the teams faced 16 minutes of football for a chance to lift the trophy.

The Schools’ Team Cup Final was up first between Manor Lodge School from Hertfordshire and St Marys Catholic Primary School from Kent. St Marys Catholic High School came away with a 3-1 Victory in the Final to be crowned National Champions!

The Girls’ Cup final was up next between Days Lane Primary School from Kent and Valley Garden’s Middle School from Cheshire. Days Lane, after coming second in their group to their fellow finalists came away with a 2-0 win to lift the trophy.

The Small Schools’ Cup Final rounded off the day with St Paul’s CofE Primary School from Kent facing Kingsland CofE Primary School from Herefordshire. The final was a fantastic advert for Schools’ football with late goals and a dramatic penalty shootout to decide the winner. Kingsland CofE Primary School eventually came out on top and were crowned National Champions.

It was fantastic to see so many talented young footballers enjoying playing football with their school friends and getting to experience what it is like to play in a professional football stadium.

The full set of results from the day can be found here.

Stay tuned for a round up video of the event, capturing all the key action alongside interviews with the players and team management staff.

A big thank you to our friends at Mark Harrod for supplying the goals for this event. For more information on Mark Harrod, click here.

Photo Credits: 353 Photography

Classroom Challenge

Panini Classroom Challenge winner announced

The English Schools' FA

Fossdene School in London set to receive £3,000 Classroom Challenge cash prize

Through the ESFA and Panini’s ongoing partnership, in March 2021 primary schools in England were invited to register to receive some UEFA EURO 2020â„¢ tournament edition official sticker collection goodies for their school, including worksheets with a competition to design a football. The competition prize was set at an incredible £3,000 cash for the winning school, plus a £50 Amazon voucher and football shirt for the winning pupil. To top it all off, winners also received the option of a presentation assembly for their school pupils.

With Schools’ Football Week planned for 24-30 May 2021, the timing of the Classroom Challenge fitted in perfectly, allowing the winner to be announced on Friday 28 May. Alongside this competition, Panini have also produced three classroom worksheets for schools to download as part of this May’s Schools’ Football Week activities, which have been a fantastic way of exploring football inside as well as outside of the classroom.

Following a difficult judging process of a staggering 8,000+ entries with an incredibly high standard of work, the ESFA and Panini are delighted to announce that Fossdene Primary School in London produced the winning entry, thanks to Linara from Year 5.

The ESFA judges were delighted with the quality of entries submitted from all participating schools and found the level of work that went into each of them was impressively high. As such, the ESFA and Panini also wanted to share two other designs, both of which were very close to the top spot! They were submitted by Harry from St Andrew’s CofE Primary School in Devon, and Lara from Hale Prep School in Cheshire – the judging panel were really impressed with the quality of design and the thought that had gone into the work received from these pupils.

A special mention for Harry & Lara’s fantastic football designs

This has been the most hotly contested Classroom Challenge to date, with more than double the amount of entries received during last September’s competition. It has been a pleasure for the ESFA and Panini to provide something for schools and children to get involved in, as things begin to return to some sense of normality within schools in England.

Nick Clark, Special Projects Editor for Panini UK, said: “It’s been a delight to see so many schools take part in the Classroom Challenge, and a big well done to all those children who submitted their amazing designs – we were bowled over by the quality and quantity of entries received.  Congratulations  to our winner, Linara from Fossdene School, for creating such a colourful and detailed football design.  We look forward to presenting both Linara and the school with their prizes soon.”

We received some fantastic photos of pupils with their Panini goodies & of completed Classroom Challenge entries. Here are some images from St Winefride’s Convent School, De Lacy Primary & St Meryl School

You can also take a look at some of our other fantastic, shortlisted entries below:

We would like to thank Linara and all the pupils Fossdene Primary School, as well as all the other competing schools, for taking the time to enter this competition, and for providing us with such fantastic examples of artistic design by young students. The school is now set to receive their prize.