About Schools' Football Week
Schools’ Football Week (SFW) 2026 will be back in the calendars of schools across England from Monday 23 March until Sunday 29 March in partnership with Pokémon for the second year running.
Designed as an opportunity for schools, teams and Associations from across the country to embrace schools’ football and the wellbeing benefits it provides to pupils and players, the ESFA and Pokémon will be taking Schools’ Football Week to new heights in 2026!
Schools’ Football Week 2025 saw the campaign reach fantastic levels of participation –
- 200,000 pupils taking part
- 85,000 girls benefitting from football activity
- 1,000+ schools registering across England
Don’t miss your chance to be a part of this fantastic initiative for 2026!
The ESFA and Pokémon will be working together to encourage schools, Associations, clubs and teams to introduce some football-related activity into their environments throughout SFW from the 23 – 29 March 2026 . From football-themed lessons, featuring our new SFW Pokémon worksheets, to inter-house or intra-school tournaments, the campaign is designed to celebrate schools’ football, girls’ football and everything in between in a way that is inclusive to all pupils and players.
Sign up here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/F3G89GB
What’s new?
Schools’ Football Week, in partnership with Pokémon, is here to champion a week-long array of activities that are planned and implemented by schools and school pupils right across England from the 23 – 29 March 2026. The 2026 campaign will see all schools:
- Have access to downloadable SFW resources including participation certificates and social media assets
- Receive some Pokémon themed fun packs for pupils within school (you can check out our toolkit for tips on how you can utilise them with your pupils!)
- Have access to some brand-new Pokémon-themed classroom worksheets, enabling SFW to take place in the classroom as well as on the pitch
In 2026, the ESFA and Pokémon are also relaunching the SFW Trailblazers campaign, which will see 100 schools selected from registrations who are planning to demonstrate outstanding activities for Schools’ Football Week 2026. These Trailblazer schools will:
- Receive additional resources for their activities
- Be sent printed certificates, certifying them as SFW Trailblazers
- Be considered for additional activity and / or content capture from the ESFA and Pokémon media team, to help promote the amazing 2026 SFW activity across the country
Registrations now open!
Schools’ Football Week isn’t designed to focus wholly on competitive football, but the wide-ranging benefits that being part of a team can have on school age children in England. The campaign aims to create opportunities for schools to bring football off the pitch and into the classroom, allowing pupils to apply principles and benefits of schools’ football into their daily lives and lessons, making for a truly all-encompassing and engaging campaign for pupils of all ages.
The English Schools’ FA and Pokémon will work together to create another fantastic Schools’ Football Week for all participants in 2026.