Bring the tournament into your PE lessons, assemblies and cross-curricular teaching. A ready-to-use primary school resource: calendar, host-country spotlights, England fixtures, activity ideas and the 48-team directory — with matches across the USA, Canada and Mexico.
Key dates to plan your lessons around. Use alongside a classroom wall display or a printable match-tracker.
Mexico host the first game at Estadio Azteca, Mexico City — the tournament's oldest venue.
12 groups of 4 teams. Every team plays 3 matches — perfect for daily classroom updates.
New format: the top two from each group, plus the 8 best third-placed teams, advance.
Single-elimination knockouts. Great for class sweepstakes and prediction grids.
Eight teams left. Overlaps with the last week of summer term in most UK regions.
Atlanta and Dallas host. Worth building into end-of-term assemblies if timings align.
MetLife Stadium, New York / New Jersey. The first World Cup final ever held in the US.
A first: three countries sharing the hosting duties. Perfect for a Geography and PSHE unit.
Your wall-display hook: England's journey is the natural way to get a whole year group invested.
England arrive at the 2026 tournament as one of the strongest European nations, having reached the final at Euro 2024 and topped their qualifying group. With 48 teams this time, the path to the final is three matches longer than in previous World Cups.
3 matches · 11–27 Jun
29 Jun – 3 Jul
4 – 7 July
9 – 11 July
14–15 July
Sun 19 July (MetLife)
Tournament base: Kansas City, Missouri. Kick-off times are UK time. All matches live on BBC and ITV.
Cross-curricular prompts for PE, Geography, Maths and PSHE. Copy, paste, adapt.
Open the PE lesson with a movement inspired by a host country — lacrosse-style shuttles (Canada), luchador holds (Mexico), American-football passing drills (USA).
Pick a nation each week. Kids research how that country's squad trains and try one of their warm-ups. Great for building fitness vocabulary.
Print a map of North America. Pupils locate and label each host stadium. Extension: calculate travel times between group-stage venues.
Use the 48-team flag directory. Pupils group flags by colour, pattern or symbol (stars, stripes, animals). Discuss what flags reveal about a country.
Matches in Los Angeles kick off while UK pupils are asleep. Chart it: "If the match is 8pm local time in LA, what time is it here?"
Run a class prediction league. Track goals, clean sheets, upsets. Introduce simple probability: "England's chance of reaching the knockouts."
Before each matchday, discuss fair-play values: respect for opponents, handling winning and losing. Link to school values and playground behaviour.
How do top players manage pressure? Explore mental health in elite sport. Older classes can link this to their own resilience during SATs.
The 2026 tournament features 48 teams for the first time. Hosts, debutants and England's Group L rivals highlighted.
Defending champions: 🇦🇷 Argentina · Most World Cup titles: 🇧🇷 Brazil (5) · Tournament debutants: Cape Verde, Curaçao, Jordan, Uzbekistan
The classroom kit is free — and pairs perfectly with the Spark2 World Cup VR Workshop. Your pupils step inside a virtual stadium, explore host cities in 360°, and experience the tournament like never before.
Book the VR WorkshopMany other primary PE & sports workshops also available — browse all here.
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