What is Schools League?
The Fencing Victoria Winter Schools League is a series of competitions run each year for secondary school students.
Fencers represent their school, fencing epee in Junior (years 7-9) and Senior (years 10-12) categories. There are individual and team events, with seperate events for girls and boys.
Many of the participating schools offer fencing as a winter School Sport, with training on campus through terms 2 and 3.
If your school does not offer fencing as a school sport, you can still enter the competition by joining and training at your local fencing club. Fencers will still represent their school at school events, not their club.
Check our resources below if you need help recruiting more fencers from your school to form teams.
Competition Format
Individual Rounds
The season begins with 3 rounds of Poules, followed by a Direct Elimination in round 4.
Fencers are advised of their poule start time in advance, and once they have signed off on their results they are free to leave. A poule of 7 fencers generally takes about 2 hours to complete. Each bout is to 5 points.
The results of the first 3 rounds are used to seed fencers for the elimination bouts in round 4. A fencer can only enter round 4 if they have participated in at least one of the first three rounds.
DE bouts are to 10 points.
The top 64 fencers in each category form the ‘A’ Tableau and fence off for medals.
The remaining fencers from 65 and beyond are placed in the ‘B’ Tableau, where they will also fence off for their own set of medals.
Teams
Fencing teams are made up of 3 fencers, plus one reserve fencer, for a total of 4 team members.
All members of a team must be from the same school.
Individual Championships.
Held all on one day, fencers in each category participate in a round of poules followed by a Direct Elimination.
Podium Standards
Fencers must wear EITHER School approved clothing (jacket/polo/sports top or as mandated by the respective school) OR fencing whites (Jacket) zip done up. Shoes must be worn on the podium. Headwear should not be worn.
How to Enter
If your school offers fencing as a School Sport, your school will submit your entries to Fencing Victoria, and inform you of your competition times.
Otherwise, you can enter yourself online using the event registration link. To do this you will also need a Fencing Victoria Club/School Membership.
To enter the pre-season training camp, you may need to purchase a club/school membership if your school has not yet sent through your affiliation information.
Late Entries are not accepted for Schools League events.
National Events
There are two National Schools’ League events in 2025.
The Intermediate (or Junior Secondary) Championships will be held at the State Fencing Centre in North Melbourne.
The Senior (or Senior Secondary) Championships will be held in Canberra.
To compete in the Intermediate Championships (Epee), fencers will need to be ranked in the top 10 fencers from their school at the end of the round 4 individual events.
Draft 2025 Calendar
April 14-16: Pre-Season Training Camp
May 4: Individuals Round 1 (Poules only)
May 18: Individuals Round 2 (Poules only)
May 25: Individuals Round 3 (Poules only)
June 1: Individuals Round 4 (Direct Elimination only)
June 14/15: Australian Intermediate Schools Championships
June 22: Teams Round 1
July 27: Teams Championships
August 3: Individual Championships
Resources
