Girls' Football in Schools

Overview

Funded by The FA and delivered by the Youth Sport Trust, Girls’ Football in Schools is a framework delivered locally by a national network of over 300 local partnerships and tailored programmes, working to achieve the ambition that every girl will have equal access to football in school by 2024.

Evidence of Need

We know that girls do not have equal access to football in schools. The FA’s vision is to ensure that every girl has this opportunity, with the goal of 75% of schools nationally offering girls equal access to football in PE lessons, and 90% of schools nationally offering girls equal opportunities to participate regular extra-curricular football.

Driving this vision are the Barclays Girls’ Football School Partnerships by England Football, a nationwide network to mainstream football in school for girls.

The Youth Sport Trust provides the day-to-day coaching and support of the network of local strategic leads and equips them with programmes, such as Disney inspired Shooting Stars by England Football and Barclays Game On part of England Football, alongside training for girls and their teachers.

Did you know?

75%
of schools achieved equal access in PE, as of 2023
58%
of schools achieved equal opportunities in extra-curricular, as of 2023
24%
of total participants in football are women – The FA Strategic Plan 2020-2024

Ways to Access

Through your strategic lead

Each Barclays Girls' Football School Partnership is led by a dedicated education expert with knowledge and understanding of education and girls’ football in their local area. If you are unsure of either who your strategic lead is or whether you are part of a partnership, please get in touch and we can support you.

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Digital Resources

The Girls' Football in Schools website has been designed as a ‘one-stop shop’ for all schools in England to access support, practical resources and useful information to develop girls' football provision in your school. Register for a free account and get started today.

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Disney inspired Shooting Stars

Disney inspired Shooting Stars is designed to support primary schools increase the engagement of girls aged 5-11 years old in sport at school and in the home. It does this through two initiatives - Active Play Through Story Telling and Girls’ Football Clubs.

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Barclays Game On

Barclays Game On is designed to support secondary schools to create engaging, meaningful and enjoyable girls’ football opportunities in their schools. The programme focuses on three core elements - GO Teach, GO Lead and GO Play.

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FAW Be Football

The Be Football Schools Programme is delivered in partnership between the Youth Sport Trust and FA Wales and works with secondary aged girls in Wales to improve participation and perception. On occasion we will seek new schools to participate in this programme. You can see which programmes we have currently recruiting and your eligibility here.

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Impact to Date

Nearly 20,000 schools are now in one of the 320 Barclays Girls Football Schools Partnerships. This means that 90% of eligible schools in the country are part of a network committed to ensuring equal access for girls.

Furthermore since the programme began in 2016...

  • 280,318 girls participated in Girls’ Football School programmes
  • 6,192 teachers have been trained
  • 5,391 schools have been trained

The case studies on this page provide further information and impact of the Disney inspired Shooting Stars and Barclays Game On programmes.

Contact Us

If you would like to find out more about this programme then get in touch with us today.

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