Last year over 1,600 schools entered with over 23,000 children taking part, and this year's event promises to go up yet another gear with organisers anticipating that the number of schools involved will top 1,800 with over 25,000 children heading onto court during the Championships. 

With badminton being played in well over a third of all school sport halls across England, and with more than 20% of 11-15 year olds picking up a racket each month, badminton continues to be one of the most popular sports amongst children in, and out, of school time.

Eric Brown, Chair of the Schools and Youth Board for BADMINTON England describes, “The quality of play gets better every year and we are looking forward to another highly competitive Championships this year. With the incentive of competing in the Finals Weekend at a fantastic venue, the Center Parcs National Schools Championships is truly one of the finest school sports events in the UK”

Center Parcs proudly hosts the Finals Weekend where the best teams from schools around the country come to compete against each other for the Championship title, whilst being cheered on by members of the Team England badminton squad.

Martin Dalby, CEO at Center Parcs, explains “The Center Parcs National Schools Championships just keeps getting bigger and better so we’re already looking forward to hosting the finals for a third time at Center Parcs Sherwood Forest in April next year. I’d like to wish all the schools who are taking part in this year’s Championships the very best of luck.”

The aim of the Center Parcs National Schools Championships is to create a ‘best in class’ event that provides schools across England with a high-level competitive badminton opportunity to assist with the development of teamwork and social skills. As well as looking to build on the quality of competitive badminton played in, and between, schools the Championships will also give badminton’s talent identification process a real boost with the chance to review the true potential of such a large number of children in action.

There are four categories within the 2010/11 competition which is open to both boys and girls between the years 7 and 11: Boys - Years 7/8/9; Boys - Years 10/11; Girls – Years 7/8/9 and Girls – Years 10/11.  

The Championships consist of five rounds with matches commencing in November 2010. During the next seven months over 1,800 schools will be whittled down to just 36 who will contest the national final, to be held at Center Parcs Sherwood Forest, over the weekend of the 2/3 April 2011.

Schools wishing to take part in this year’s Championships should visit www.badmintonengland.co.uk/nationalschoolschampionships for more details on how to enter.  The deadline for entries this year is 29th October 2010.