The English Schools’ Football Association are delighted to announce the return of Schools’ Football Week, from 24 – 30 May 2021.
Schools’ Football Week is an ESFA initiative designed not only to highlight the huge scale of Schools’ Football in England, but also as an opportunity for schools, teams and clubs from across the country to embrace schools’ football and the wellbeing benefits it provides to pupils and players. With the anticipated lifting of restrictions on school and youth sport, the ESFA is looking forward to the 21/22 season and is keen, in the meantime, to draw attention to the wonderful world of Schools’ Football that, despite challenges, has been ever present throughout the last 12 months. The main focus for Schools’ Football Week 2021 is to provide an opportunity for children to get outside, have fun and enjoy being able to play sport with their school friends, competitively or otherwise.
We will be planning some different activities to take place throughout Schools’ Football Week and will keep you fully updated on these over the next few weeks. We will be officially launching Schools’ Football Week on Monday 19 April when we will be able to share with you all of our plans. We will be asking you to register activity taking place within your school so we can celebrate the participation numbers from across England.
In the meantime”¦
We are planning to host a specific day of activity on Wednesday 26 May, which will be known as Schools’ Football Week – Game On! On this day, we will be inviting all schools and colleges to host inter-house or intra-school tournaments – creating the biggest football match in the world! More details will be released, but in the meantime, please pop the date in your diary and think about how many matches your school could host on the 26th May.
The English Schools’ FA (ESFA) is delighted to announce that this season’s Schools’ Football Week (SFW), taking place from 3 – 7 February 2020, has encouraged football opportunities for over 22,500 school pupils across England.
Schools’ Football Week, an ESFA initiative, is a
countrywide campaign, designed to highlight the huge scale of Schools’ Football
in England and also an opportunity for schools, teams and clubs to showcase their
talent, dedication and benefits of schools’ football using their own
experiences.
The ESFA invited schools, Community Trusts and Schools’
Football Associations from across England to show their support for Schools’
Football Week and to outline any plans they have in place for the event. Over
300 schools and teams registered their activity and the impact of Schools’
Football Week has some impressive figures attached;
We expect more than 2,704 teams (boys, girls and mixed) to be taking part in                   activity between 3 – 7 February
We expect more than 22,580 school children in England to be involved in some               kind of activity relating to Schools’ Football Week
ESFA data shows that schools plan to hold both intra and inter-school activities for boys and girls and over 150 schools will be holding coaching or training sessions for their pupils and players to take part in, all in the name of schools’ football. Schools also advised the ESFA they are planning to hold assemblies, integrate football into history and geography lessons as well host challenges for both pupils and teachers to take part in, such as cross-bar challenges, beat the goalie and penalty shootouts. Some schools are holding charity events and inviting pupils to wear their favourite football shirt to school for the day.
Schools and teams that registered their activity for
Schools’ Football Week will all be placed into a draw to win 30 tickets for a
free tour of Wembley, donated by The FA to support the Schools’ Football Week
campaign.
School pupils were also invited to take part in a pupil
survey, with a view to giving them a voice and the opportunity to share their
thoughts on the football landscape as a whole. Over 150 school pupils filled
out the online survey –
70% of them agreed with the current ruling that
mixed football should be available for pupils up to the age of Under 18
65% believed that England have a good chance of
winning Euro 2020 in June
Messi came out on top as the best player in
world football.
Aside
from this, all of the respondents believed that they had benefitted from at
least one of the ESFA’s “15 benefits of Schools’ Football”, which is
a reassuring compliment for the Association and its deep rooted values. Pupils
also gave their opinions on schools’ football-specific subjects, such as
playing formats for various ages of the game – all of the responses will be
reviewed by the ESFA as the Governing Body for Schools’ Football and taken into
account when making strategic plans for forthcoming seasons. Pupils that
completed the survey were given the opportunity to provide their school name
and all schools whose details have been received will be in with a chance of
winning a full football kit for a squad of 15 from official ESFA kit providers,
Pendle.
Former
Schools’ Footballers, Michael Keane
(Everton and England) and Tammy Abraham
(Chelsea and England) created some video content for the ESFA and talked about
their own experiences within Schools’ Football and why it was so important to
them. The ESFA is delighted to boast such high profile supporters of the work
taken out by the Association and hopes to continue to inspire future
generations of English players in their professional careers.
The ESFA will be marking the start of Schools’ Football
Week on Monday 3 February with the first ever PlayStation F.C. Schools’ Cup
Next Level Live event, taking place at West Bromwich Albion’s Hawthorns
Stadium. In conjunction with ESFA partners, PlayStation, the event will provide
the opportunity for over 300 school pupils from secondary schools across
England to take part in unique careers development sessions hosted by ESFA
higher education partner, University Campus of Football Business (UCFB) as well
as immersive activities set up throughout the stadium highlighting the various
elements of the PlayStation F.C. Schools’ Cup and featuring some PlayStation
F.C. Schools’ Cup ambassadors.
Thursday 6 February will mark the Schools’ Football Week
“Game On” aspect of the campaign – we will be monitoring all activity
on social media that takes place on this day to get a good snapshot of Schools’
Football activity within one specific day. All schools or teams that use the
hashtag #SFWGameOn on 6 February will be put into a draw to win a framed Panini
sticker mock up collection, featuring their own players from their school or
club team.
ESFA Chairman, Phil Harding said; “We are delighted to see the impressive figure of school children
in England who will get the opportunity to partake in some degree of Schools’
Football thanks to the Schools’ Football Week campaign. The ESFA’s ethos is that
of an educational establishment and it’s incredibly important to us that we are
able to provide new ways to give children in England the opportunity to take
part in football related activity as part of a healthy lifestyle and
educational balance.”
The ESFA will be promoting Schools’ Football Week activity
across all social media channels from 3 – 7 February and sharing as much
content as possible received from participants.