Qualified teams confirmed for National Schools Finals 2024

The National Schools Competition crowns the top schools in the U14, U16 and U19 age divisions, and the National Schools Finals weekend in association with the British Army is the culmination of the competition that approximately 1,500 schools have taken part in. 

For those wanting to watch from home, the National Schools Finals in association with the British Army will be streamed on englandnetball.tv here. A weekend pass to all games costs £9.99 or you can pay £4.99 per age group. 

The competition begins with the County Rounds, from which the top schools advance to the Regional Schools Finals. The top two sides from each age category from each region then qualify for the National Finals weekend. 

Back to defend their title are current champions of the U14 division, Putney High (London & South East), whilst the U16 division sees Hurstpierpoint College (South), who finished in third place last year, return to the finals. They’ll be looking for a strong performance to take advantage of the absence of 2023’s U16 winners and runners-up, Redmaids’ High School (South West) and Bromsgrove High School (West Midlands). For the U19s, last year’s runners up Hartpury College (South West) have qualified once again and will be hoping to go one better this year with current U19 champions Berkhamsted (East) not qualifying for the finals this year.  

The weekend begins with teams in the U14, U16 and U19 divisions each being split into two sections which they will then compete amongst in a round-robin format. 

The top two teams in each section from each age group will then progress to the semi-finals, followed by third-place play-offs and then the finals. All the fixtures can be viewed here.

Along with crowning the National Schools Champions for each age group, the newly named Pam Telford Endeavour Award will also be awarded to each age group this year. Pam Telford recently retired as the Lead Competition Referee for the National Schools Finals, and she has been involved in the competition both nationally and in the South West for over 40 years. Her efforts have been instrumental in establishing the competition as the biggest school netball competition in England. The Pam Telford Endeavour Award will be awarded to the team in each age division who displays sportsmanship and respect throughout the tournament. 

 In line with England Netball’s NETBALLHer initiative that supports women and girls to thrive on and beyond the court, Court Short boxes will be available for all attendees to use. 

 The British Army, who are the principal partners of the event, will be in attendance throughout the weekend and will present medals and prizes to the winners of each age group. They will also be engaging with players throughout, sharing information about the important work they do in the community and providing fun challenges for players to get involved with between matches.  

 Physique Management, who are the Official Physiotherapy Partner of the event, Gilbert and DYNAMIK Sports Flooring will all be providing free products for competing schools, with Physique Management providing every school attending with an England Netball approved first aid bag full of everything they will need over the weekend in addition to goodie bags for the winning schools. 

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