New for 2026, English Schools’ Swimming Association has started a new award to celebrate the hard work of schools across the country in aquatics. Following the same questions as the governments Sport Premium submission, we are asking schools to submit their Year 6 swimming competency data. We want to award those schools going above and beyond ensuring they fulfil their national curriculum swimming requirements. The President’s Award has three categories of gold, silver and bronze depending on your schools swimming competency percentage. To get involved, complete the on-line form at https://forms.office.com/e/nEmN4XewVA This award is proudly sponsored by Watch Me Swimming Awards, the only fully inclusive and bespoke swimming awards program. They celebrate milestones and create bespoke school swimming awards. See the awards website for more information.
The Primary Schools' Team Relay Championships Coordinator is Alison Crawford
The SMALL SCHOOLS section apply to a combined total of up to 65 pupils in curriculum years 5 & 6; a freestyle team and a mixed stroke team. Small school teams comprise 4 swimmers in any combination of boys/girls including 4 boys or 4 girls.
The LARGE SCHOOLS section is for schools with a combined total of more than 65 pupils in curriculum years 5 & 6; a freestyle team and a mixed stroke team. Large school teams comprise 2 boys + 2 girls or 3 boys + 1 girl or 1 boy + 3 girls.
The OPEN SCHOOLS section applies to any size school; a boys freestyle team, a girls freestyle team, a boys mixed stroke team and a girls mixed stroke team.
Schools may enter only one category
The 'President's Award' recognises the highest placed State-funded school for each event.
2026 Event
30th Primary Schools' Team Championships
Date:
20th June 2026
Venue:
Ponds Forge International Sports Centre, Sheffield
Start:
1.00pm
Admission:
Pay at the door (£12.00 per Adult, £6.00 per child under 11yrs/concessions)
National Finals:
Officials
This is not a licensed meet. We invite officials to sign up to officiate at the national finals using the link below:
Closing date for personalised orders: 7th June 2026 Closing date for standard (not personalised) pre-order to guarantee your items at pick up 7th June 2026
Swimmer Nomination Form (Team List)
This year we will not be using paper forms. Instead, Schools are required to submit their swimmer nominations for their team(s) using an on-line form. Please complete the form at this link: https://forms.office.com/e/DyiferK3yY The form can be re-submitted if there are changes. Only one form is required per team (covering both Freestyle and Mixed Stroke relays). A seperate form will be required if you are entering both an 'Open Boys' and 'Open Girls' team.
Live Event Information (Start Lists/Results/Streaming)
All live information for these championships will be accessible from links on our live events page The Start lists reflect the programme before any late withdrawls, so there may be a few substitutions, but no changes to lanes for those school attending.
Information/links should appear by mid morning on the 20th June.
Rules and Regulations
Please read carefully the Rules & Regulations (these were updated in 2026) (see download links below - click on the text not the icon; the downloaded file will appear in a new window or your downloads folder depending on your browser and its configuration).
The ESSA has been providing an opportunity for all schools in England to actively engage in competitive water polo since 1976. Water polo has become increasingly popular within schools for boys, and now girls since 2003, and there are now a significant number of competitions that reflect this.
Both boys’ and girls’ groups compete at U18, U15 and U13 age groups. The first phase of preliminary competitions is mostly regionalised. Following this preliminary phase the U18 and U15 age groups split into three levels; - the ‘Championship’, where the elite schools compete for the national title, - the ‘Plate’ where the intermediate schools compete for their national title, and - the ‘Bowl’ where the developing schools compete for their national title. All schools enter the ‘Championship’ competition in the preliminary phase and it is then hoped that subsequent phases are a ‘standard appropriate’ level of competition for all competing schools. The U13 ‘Championship’ competition for both boys and girls is regionalised during the preliminary phase of competition. The second phase of this competition takes into consideration the results from the preliminary phase, whilst still providing an opportunity for all competing schools to qualify for the ‘Championship’ final and compete for the national title.
Cadet competitions aim to attract new players into competitive water polo and to retain them. A school cannot enter a Championship team, and also a Cadet team, with the same pupils that have already competed in the Championship competition. There are now two age groups for the Cadet competition – U11 (Year 6 and below) and U13 (Year 8 and below). Teams can be single sex or mixed.
The Prince of Wales Cup (formerly the Duke of Cambridge Cup) is a one-day tournament for the best 60 boys and best 60 girls, nominated by schools and The Swim England Water Polo Talent Centres, from a specific age group (identified as at the start of the academic year by the ESSA Council). To be considered for this competition a pupil must attend School in England.
International honours can be achieved following selection by the ESSA Head Coach, usually at the Prince of Wales Cup (formerly the Duke of Cambridge Cup) one-day tournament and with support from the Swim England Talent Centre pathway. Since 2015 International teams have represented the ESSA at tournaments in Malta, Hungary and in 2018 we welcomed Australia and Romania to England for a Home International tournament.
Senior Male/Open Water Polo Championship The Mike Glover Trophy Winners 2026 Whitgift School, London Division
Senior Female Water Polo Championship The Jim Caulfield Trophy Winners 2026 Notting Hill & Ealing High School, London Division
ESSA Water Polo 2026/27 Championships and Competitions
Entry information for the championships are now available below: Entry this year is through on-line forms.
Note: the regulations will be updated to reflect updates to WaterPolo rules. Revised regulations will appear here shortly and will be identifiable as "from 2026 - onwards"
The Summer Open (Individual) Championships organiser is summer-open@essa-mail.uk (Stewart Nicklin)
In 2026, ESSA are holding their 6th Summer Open Championships. It is open to all school age swimmers from 9 years old, including para swimmers.
2026 Event
6th Summer Open Individual Championships
Date:
4th/5th July 2026
Venue:
K2 Leisure Centre, Crawley 50m Pool, 8 Lanes, full electronic timing with anti-turbulence lane ropes
License:
Licensed by Swim England at Level 3 (3SE260524)
Entry:
Hy-Tek/TeamUnify; SportSystems; group entry using Excel; Team/Individual entry using online form
Entries open: Monday 2nd March 2026 Closing date: Friday 5th June 2026 or when full if earlier
As a 'first-come-first-served' meet, individual events or sessions may close early when full.
Age Groups:
9, 10, 11/12, 13/14, 15 and over. Ages are calculated as at 5th July 2026 (Last day of competition)
Events:
50m, 100m and 200m all strokes plus 200m IM, 400m Freestyle and IM
Awards:
Awards to 1st, 2nd and 3rd in each age group. (HDW)
Fees:
£9.00 per event (Payment by BACS or Card)
Any refunds are at the discrtetion of the organisers and will be subject to a retained fee to cover processing and administration costs
Spectators:
Pay at the door - Adults/Children 13 and older: £5 per session, £15 for both days (all 4 sessions) - Concessions : £3 per session, £10 for both days (all 4 sessions) - Children Under 13 Free
Entry Status
The meet is now full and we have closed the meet to new entries. Team Manager/Coach passess can still be ordered until Midnight on 19th June.
Officials/Volunteers
This is a Level 3 licensed meet. We are seeking volunteers to help with the running of this event on the day.
If anyone is able to volunteer some time as an official, or to help on the door, medals table, marshalling of swimmers - all offers of help are appreciated. Please complete the online Volunteer form (Officials and Non-Technical officials): https://forms.office.com/e/eJG5Wf27VL Expenses will be paid in accordance with our expenses policy:
Entries are accepted after payment has been received. Please ensure payment is made on submission of entries, or as soon as practical afterward for BACS Payments.
We are working on a consolidated accepted entry list that will show any anomalies in matching to Rankings. In the mean time, the provisional accepted entries can be seen at https://bsbasa.org/WebEntry/EntryReport.php?Meet=essaso26
All these entries are accepted except where shown as struck though or where payment has not been received. Note the payment status on this list is out of date, so if yours is not marked as paid, but you have paid it, the entry is accepted.
Withdrawals
Withdrawals close for each session at the start of the session's Warm-Up. Withdrawals can be made using the online form https://forms.office.com/e/npekG6sCQs The online form will close at the start of each warm-up to allow us to process the withdrawals, then re-open once the session has started. Paper forms will NOT be used this year.
Poolside Passes
Coach/Team Manager passes can be purchased up to midnight on 19th June even when entries are closed. They can be applied for without an entry (e.g. after entries have closed early or after entry submission) by selecting the 'Purchase of meet extras, eg Poolside passes, Parking etc.' option.
Chaperone passes are available for para swimmers. These passes are free of charge. Chaperone’s will require a letter from school or club official and be a relative of the athlete.
Warm-Up Schedule
The warm-up schedule for each session will appear here after entries have closed
Live Event Information
All live information for these championships will be accessible from links on our live events page (click here) Information/links should appear by mid morning on the 3rd July and be updated by the end of warm-up for each session.
Session 2 Warm up 13:00; Start 14:00; Finish 17:00 (est)
Session 4 Warm up 13:00; Start 14:00; Finish 17:00 (est)
201
Female 400m Individual Medley
401
Male/Open 400m Individual Medley
202
Male/Open 200m Individual Medley
402
Female 200m Individual Medley
203
Female 100m Butterfly
403
Male/Open 100m Butterfly
204
Male/Open 200m Freestyle
404
Female 200m Freestyle
205
Female 200m Breaststroke
405
Male/Open 200m Breaststroke
206
Male/Open 100m Breaststroke
406
Female 100m Breaststroke
207
Female 50m Freestyle
407
Male/Open 50m Freestyle
208
Male/Open 50m Backstroke
408
Female 50m Backstroke
Entries
Entries
This year, thanks to continued support from Berkshire and South Buckinghamshire Amateur Swimming Association webmaster, we are using an on-line entry system that accepts entries in the following formats:
Individual entries using on line form. This is also for Para swimmer entry.
Sport Systems (.SEZ) - See Entry Files below for the SportSystems Meet Entry files, and option to download the SportSystems Entry Manager
HyTek/TeamUnify etc (.HY3/.SD3) - See Entry Files below for the Meet Definition File
Excel Entry File (.xlsx) - See Entry Files below for Excel spreadsheet download and instructions
Coach/Team Manager Pass - these are applied for when using any of the entry systems above, or can be applied for seperately.
This is an individual event where swimmers represent themselves. They may enter directly, through their club or their school. It is open to all secondary school aged swimmers, and primary school swimmers that have reached the age of 9 by the last day of the championships, including Para swimmers.
