History
The present Champion Schools competitions began in 1981. Before that, Regional Champion School Competitions were held. Many of the Yorkshire Schools' competition records have been lost but the Lancashire Schools' (North West Counties) records go back to the beginning of the Champion School Competition in 1926. St. Patrick's (Wigan) played St. Bede's (Widnes) in that 1926 final at Central Park before a crowd of 20,000. St. Patrick's won 6–3 to become Lancashire's champion school.
In academic year 2006/7 over 1,500 teams and 25,000 players competed. Andy Harland, the RFL's National Development Manager, stated: "Since 2002/2003 season more than 80,000 pupils have played in this tournament, so this year we expect to break the 100,000 barrier which is a huge achievement not only for rugby league but sport in this country".
In 2007, the ESRL fixture secretary, Ron England, noted how the tournament had provided a focus to spreading the sport to more schools. The link to Wembley is cited as one factor in the success of the competition. Another factor highlighted is the enthusiasm of teachers which is considered a driving force. The schools are linked into their local service area and professional clubs. Mr England was positive about the future performance of Welsh and London schools: "They're at a terrific standard". England stated his belief that the best boys' schools teams were playing to a higher standard than in the past, "I think the best individual schools now are at a level that the old district teams were at four or five years ago. Schools have got more ambitious and there's a strong link with the service areas and professional scholarships ... as for the girls, we are seeing the talent emerge and we are now attracting a whole new concept and depth to the development of girls quality competition."
In 2008/09, a 1,678 teams took part in the tournament - an increase of 175 from the previous year. 27,537 students participated. Castleford High School has been a dominant force in the tournament since its re-launch, in 2009 the school fielded 6 teams in the national finals for the third year in succession.
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