Football for Schools

Teaching and learning through football

The official Football for Schools app, designed by the FIFA Foundation and UNESCO, will help teachers and coach-educators throughout the world to bring the game of football to boys and girls aged four to 14, while at the same time empowering these learners by cultivating life skills and conveying key educational messages.

The Football for Schools app provides short videos designed to engage, enthuse and inspire children of all abilities. The idea is to “let the game be the teacher” as you facilitate the sessions. The app helps to foster children’s holistic development by introducing them to the “beautiful game” and using football as a springboard to nurture a range of important skills and competencies for life. The programme capitalises on the fact that many of the skills used in football are transferable to other aspects of life, and enables the coach-educator to highlight the connection between the personal and social skills needed on the pitch and those required to prosper and be resilient in day-to-day life.

The Football for Schools experience is all about learning through fun and play, not drills and lectures!

Our playing philosophy for children at schools is to encourage the use of simple game formats in every lesson. These games promote technical and tactical development whilst also providing children with the opportunity for social interaction within a fun and friendly environment, always building in time for free play and exploration.

Highlights:

• 180 short videos (60-90 seconds) and illustrations designed for three different child development stages covering the following age brackets: 4-7 years, 8-11 years and 12-14 years. These are accompanied by life skills content for these different categories.

• 60 physical education sessions divided into the following components: a) fun warm-up games, b) skills development games, c) the application of these skills to various football match scenarios, and d) the development of life skills through participatory activities.

• Each of our games focuses on simple group organisation and the involvement, inclusion and engagement of all children, with opportunities for both basic skill execution and challenging progressions.

• Each coach-educator can select an individual session/lesson or a ready-made programme of sessions matching their coaching objectives and the expectations of the school.

Who is it for?

You do NOT have to be a qualified football coach to benefit from our app. It can be used by any physical education teacher, coach-educator or adult in a similar role, whether a beginner or an expert.

After initially running sessions and exercises on an “off-the-shelf” basis, i.e. exactly per the instructions given, coach-educators can then adapt them and create their own sessions as they become more familiar with the organisation and set-up of games.

Football for Schools is designed to equip coach-educators with an app-based toolkit of ready-made solutions. It is a plug-and-play programme that provides hours and weeks of age-appropriate football and life skills activities to promote physical education and learning – either within the school curriculum or as an extracurricular activity.

App features:

• Easy to use and navigate.

• Learn football techniques provided by FIFA experts.

• Learn educational techniques provided by UNESCO experts.

• Implement a ready-made programme for your group.

• Save your favourite lessons to build your own curriculum.

• Sessions can be downloaded for later offline use.

The Football for Schools project is geared around:

• developing the child first and the football player second;

• providing fun games that foster social interaction and cater for individual challenges;

• ensuring that all children and participants are protected and safe at all times;

• promoting the values of football as a school for life.

Download the Football for Schools app now and help us build the world’s biggest football and life skills playground!