English Schools' Football Association

“Football at the Heart of School Life”

Imagine the lively morning debates before school about last night’s game, the eager walk to class after the highs and lows of a world cup final played out at break-time, the sense of pride when representing your school team, the elation of scoring a goal after an amazing passing sequence between teammates, the inspiring classroom conversations about the pathway to England hero, and the times when we stop and think and relive those moments all over again looking back as adults.

We all know that football is like no other in its ability to capture the hearts and minds of school children, to inspire these young people and to unite young people together; creating powerful life-time memories, particularly throughout secondary school.

We believe that every young person should have access to these inspirational experiences and happy memories of football in school life. Our mission is to make this possible by supplying teachers with valuable ideas, tools and resources whilst engaging closely to ensure we can continually support teachers effectively.

The FA Secondary Schools Programme

The ESFA have teamed up with the FA and their other partner, ISFA to be able to present the FA Secondary Schools' Programme, which is free and available to all schools and comprises four clear elements.

• After School Clubs
• Leadership
• Inter School Football
• Intra School Football

Resources

Each of the elements above are supported by a multitude of resources and ideas to support delivery, available through a variety of digital channels, with printed versions and Nike merchandise options also available via the FA Schools' Programme Schools' Football Shop, which is available from September.

Digital and Social Media

To support engagement, the Programme has also launched a series of specific social media feeds for teachers. These will highlight new resources that can be easily accessed and also discuss topics of interest, relevant for schools each week, so that ideas are always at your fingertips.

Enrol now

All schools have to do to enrol is to visit the new online FA Schools Portal, create a quick and easy profile and all resources will be stored here for easy access.

The portal and launch will be officially live from 15th June.

Follow the programme on Twitter and Instagram via @FASchools and all information about how to enrol from the middle of June will be posted there.

Note: Entry to ESFA National Cup Competitions will still be accessed in the same way via the ESFA Portal.

Partners Links

The FA Secondary Schools Programme is delivered in close partnership with national partners, the English Schools FA and Independent Schools FA together with our network of County Football Associations across the country.