U14 State School Festivals

Over the past few years England Hockey have been working with the Areas and Counties to hold State School festivals for State schools to enter.

The festivals are run as 6 aside (no GK) or 7 aside (with GK) depending on what your Area / County offer.  Age group is usually for U14s but there are sometimes variants on this (please see festival details below).

There are many benefits to these festivals:-

• Playing State Schools only – often competitions involve all schools meaning that sometimes State Schools/players feel out of their depth against their opposition
• Lots of matches  –  round-robin format where possible, means plenty of short, fast-paced matches, keeping everyone involved and maximizing playing opportunities.
• Friendly Local Competition – Challenge neighbouring state school teams to build fun local rivalries .
• Half-Day or Full-Day – Quick formats to suit your schools schedule and easy to get involved
• One Big Festival Experience – All teams come together in a lively and informal event

Thanks to the efforts of those involved we have massively increased the number of schools / teams that have entered from the first festivals held in 2023.  In 2026 we held 32 festivals with 321 teams entering.

In 2027 we are looking to match the number of festivals held in 2026 but increase the number of teams that enter overall.

We are working with the Areas and Counties to set their dates and venues and will update this page when we have further details.

Dates and venues set: -

For further information or questions please contact competitions.info@englandhockey.co.uk