15 January 2025
The English Schools’ Football Association is delighted to announce the return of Schools’ Football Week from 31 March – 6 April 2025
Schools’ Football Week (SFW) 2025 will be back in the calendars of schools across England from Monday 31 March until Sunday 6 April and for the first time, will run in partnership with Pokémon! 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 2025!
Schools’ Football Week 2024 saw the campaign reach huge new levels of participation –
- Over 260,000 pupils took part in SFW activity
- Over 120,000 girls benefitted from schools’ football activity during SFW
- Over 1,400 schools registered for events
Don’t miss your chance to be a part of this fantastic and reimagined campaign for 2025!
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 31 March – 6 April. 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. We have created a SFW toolkit full of ideas to help support activity and it’s available to download here: http://www.PokemonESFA.com
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 31 March – 6 April. The 2025 campaign will see all schools:
- Have access to downloadable SFW resources including participation certificates and social media assets & “About SFW” video
- 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 2025, the ESFA and Pokémon are also launching the SFW Trailblazers campaign, which will see 250 schools selected from registrations who are planning to demonstrate outstanding activities for Schools’ Football Week 2025. 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 2025 SFW activity across the country
Click here to register for SFW 2025
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 2025.
Don’t forget to register
Activity for Schools’ Football Week 2025 can be registered by clicking this link, remember to share as much information as possible and register before 3 March 2025 to ensure you are considered to be a Trailblazer for 2025! All the resources created to support SFW activity can be found at PokemonESFA.com. Let’s make Schools’ Football Week 2025 the best year yet.
