School Games

Nationally, Sport England is working with Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the Department for Education, the British Paralympic Association and the Youth Sport Trust to deliver the School Games.

Sport England will provide the Lottery funding in England and will work with national governing bodies of sport to make sure they are able to be part of the new competition.

The competition aims to further revive the culture of competitive sport in schools.  Every school in England, and subject to the agreement of the Devolved Administrations schools in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, will be given the opportunity to get involved, potentially giving every school child the chance to take part.

The new competition will not be a single event. Rather it will be a package of events and activities, harnessing the power of the Olympic and Paralympic Games to inspire a generation of young people to get involved in competitive sports.  The competition will run at four levels:

Level 1 – Intra-school competition
There will be more competition in every school and an enlarged programme of intra-school competition (for example class or form matches).

Level 2 – Inter-school competition
Next there will be more competitions between schools through a rolling programme of leagues and tournaments. The first tournaments and leagues will be trialled in a selection of areas from the autumn 2010; with rolling competitions across the whole country from January 2011.

Level 3 – County festivals of sport
Children and young people will progress from the inter school tournaments/leagues to one of up to 60 new county festivals of sport.  These will incorporate the finals of inter school competition in every area, and showcase the best of local competitive sport.  CSPs are supporting nine pilot festivals – one in each of the Government Office regions – during the summer 2011, with England wide coverage anticipated in every CSP in summer 2012.

Each area will establish an organising committee which will be chaired by a head teacher and bring together the local schools, the county sports partnerships and other local partners.  Whilst we would expect these core groups to be part of every local organising committee we anticipate variations and difference in terms of their overall make up and the other partners.  What will be key is that the committees are locally owned and driven.  

Level 4 – National event
The country’s most talented young sports people will have the opportunity to take part in a high profile national event to showcase their talents within school sport. The first national event will take place in summer 2012. The schools of the competing athletes will be recognised and rewarded for their participation.

NGBs have an important role to play across all levels of the new competition.

The School Games will be open to all children.  However, particular attention will be paid to widening participation through the new competitions across the groups who traditionally have under participated in sport – girls, youngsters with special needs or disabilities, those from deprived background or BME heritage.

Following a public consultation the Sport England Board has agreed a budget of up to £35.5m between now and March 2015 to fund the first three rounds of the new competition.

Pilot School Games 2011
9 Pilot School Games are being held in 2011 across the country. For more details about the successful games held in June in Cornwall click here

for more information about the Games please visit the Sport England site