About School Mark

The Irish Football Association are launching the first ever School Mark for Schools across Northern Ireland.

Football Development Manager Keith Gibson commented "Schools football is something we in the Irish FA are passionate about. We want to give boys and girls as many opportunities as possible to take part in schools football. This scheme will encourage schools to put all the building blocks in place to allow football to flourish and develop a lifelong love of the game in their pupils."

NISFA Development Officer Ross Redman added, “It’s important to develop the infrastructure of Schools Football and the collaboration with the Northern Ireland Schools’ FA is an important element of the scheme.”

The scheme is a pilot scheme with a limited number of schools selected in the first instance.

There are 3 sections - Primary, Post Primary and Special Schools. Within that there are 3 levels – Gold, Silver and Bronze. Furthermore, the scheme will target different sizes of schools- Small, Medium and Large. There will be incentives offered to schools who achieve different levels of the scheme.

The School Mark will focus on several key areas including – Establishing a Head of Football, Competition structure, Extra Curricular Programmes and media plans. Schools who are interested in applying for the Scheme please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.