School Games

YST School Games

The School Games, which is funded by Sport England and delivered by the Youth Sport Trust, is a government led programme designed to deliver competitive school sport to all young people. The Games consists of intra and inter-school competition, county events and the National Finals.

Where it started

The School Games started in 2006 as a single annual multi-sport competition - what is today known as the School Games National Finals. In 2010, the School Games was expanded to include more localised competitions, from major county level events to smaller competitions within the same school.

As part of this work, the Youth Sport Trust were funded by Sport England to work alongside the National Governing Bodies of Sport, assisting in the creation of a series of sport formats to help guide the future of school sport competitions. Over the years, the list of NGBs involved with the School Games has grown to over 40, with everything from American Football to Wheelchair Basketball events currently taking place around the country.

Get involved

Click on any of the options below to find out more about a particular part of the Games, including opportunities to get involved, and links to all of the key websites and other digital platforms you might need.

The School Games featured in the Youth Sport Trust's 2017/18 Impact Report (published February 2019) - which you can see here.

Your School Games

The School Games involves funded School Games Organisers (SGOs) at a local level and Local Organising Committees (LOCs) at a county level working alongside us to inspire millions of young people across the country to take part in appropriate competitive school sport.

Approaches to Competition

The School Games is striving to reframe competition to ensure that it can remain meaningful whilst also engaging more and different young people. In order to achieve this, competition must be planned with intention, and our resources will support practitioners to deliver these wider outcomes.

School Games inclusive sport

YST is determined to ensure that there are opportunities for all young people to compete at all levels of the School Games. As such, we provide a number of resources to help schools provide a more inclusive sport provision for their pupils.

School Games events

The Youth Sport Trust host the annual School Games Summit each November where School Games Organisers (SGOs), Local Organising Committees (LOCs) and National Governing Bodies (NGBs) have the opportunity to come together to share best practice, celebrate achievements and stretch thinking. There are also a number of other regional and local events for the network throughout the year.

School Games personal challenge

As part of the School Games' mission to help more young people with the opportunity to compete and acheive their Personal Best, there is a focus on including competition against oneself and others to improve personal performances, with a focus on the process rather than the outcome.

School Games National Finals

A four day multi-sport event for the UK's elite young athletes of school age. The event seeks to create an inspirational and motivational setting that not only provides our elite young sports people with the opportunity to thrive and perform at the highest levels, but encourages more young people to take part and succeed in sport.