Holt Primary School dodgeball team reaches British national finals

Holt Primary School’s Year 6 dodgeball team has reached the British Dodgeball National Schools Championship finals, and the route there shows how school sport keeps feeding the game’s next wave. The pupils earned their place by beating other primary schools in the South West finals at the University of the West of England in Bristol earlier this month, and they will now go on to the national finals in Kettering on July 3.

What makes Holt’s run stand out is not just the result, but the scale of involvement behind it. Headteacher Jo Hodge said the school initially entered 15 Year 6 pupils for the Wiltshire round of the competition, and both of its teams were given the chance to play. Every player in that year group took part, which turned the event into a full-school-age competition experience rather than a one-team showcase.

That matters in dodgeball because the sport’s strongest pipeline still starts early, inside primary schools that treat it as more than a break-time game. Holt’s progression from Wiltshire to Bristol and then to Kettering gives its pupils a genuine competition arc, with local entry, regional success and a national title shot all coming in the same run. For a primary school, that is a significant sporting achievement and the kind of exposure that can keep players in the sport long after the school term ends.

The national finals now offer Holt the chance to turn that school-based momentum into a result on the biggest stage available to primary teams. For the wider sport, the school’s journey is a reminder that dodgeball’s future is being built well before club or national-level competition, one year group at a time.