National School Championships  2023/2024

National KS3 & KS4 Schools Competition 

Following the entry of over 700 teams we were delighted to stage a fantastic Finals weekend for the Badminton England National Schools Championships 2023/24.

The National Badminton Centre was privileged to host an exciting weekend of competitive badminton on both Saturday 20th and Sunday 21st April as the returning National Schools Championships reached its climax.

After some inspiring performances across both days, the KS3 and KS4 Boys and Girls were crowned champions at the home of Badminton England in Milton Keynes. Congratulations to Reading School and Wilson’s School who won the boys tournaments and Kendrick School who won gold in both age groups in the girls competition!

Young people are an integral part of our new 10-year strategy for badminton in England and we wanted to ensure that the pupils themselves were at the heart of the Championships from its start to the finish with the Finals last weekend.

So, in collaboration with Babolat – Official Supplier to the National School Championships – all schools who participated in the regional rounds of the competition were invited to design a flag to represent their region. The flags were designed to celebrate the values of badminton; Do what matters, Include intentionally, Play for each other and Do today brilliantly. These values are the heartbeat of what we at Badminton England aim to do every day in enabling badminton to be a sport for everyone. The flag design competition was also a wonderful opportunity for pupils from schools competing in the Championships to create a real identity for their region – with a design that speaks for their part of the country and a colour for them to compete under.

In support of the new initiative, our partners Babolat vowed to reward the winning school with a visit from a Babolat badminton ambassador who will join the school for an assembly followed by an exclusive badminton coaching session for the whole school! And we are delighted to announce that 14 year-old Ruth Biju Mathews, a pupil from Year 9 at Webber Independent School, was chosen as the overall winning designer on behalf of the South Central region.

East Midlands, designed by Lucy Watson from Kesteven and Grantham School, came in second place with team East earning bronze in the competition courtesy of a flag designed by Presdales School.

The regions weren’t just represented visually at the weekend though! Again giving the young people at the core of the competition a leading role, the pupils of the schools involved were asked to select an anthem from a shortlist of songs written or performed by artists from their own region. The anthems were played when players took to court as well as during the trophy presentations. The three times victorious (KS3 girls, KS4 girls and KS4 boys) South Central team chose Figure it Out by Royal Blood. London and the South East school, Wilson’s received their medals to Right Here, Right Now by Fatboy Slim.

And the focus on young people continued off court! Not only were the competing athletes all school pupils…but 15 young men and women from our Young Leaders Academy took to the umpire’s chair, making the difficult decisions as the match officials across the two days of competition.

Thank you to all the schools who took part in this year’s competition and the schools below who all took part in the Finals weekend in Milton Keynes.

We are already looking forward to the 2024-25 competition!

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