Oxford Half Schools’ Challenge 2026
Sunday 11 October 2026
The Oxford Half School’s Challenge invites primary school-aged children in the Oxfordshire area to take part in a 13.1 mile challenge, completing the equivalent distance of a half marathon over several weeks leading up to race day. On event day, all students run their final mile on the official Oxford Half course, cheered on by spectators and treated like real finishers.
How it works
Children log 12 miles in the weeks leading up to the Oxford Half - either during school PE lessons, after-school clubs, or independently at home.
On race day, everyone will run their final mile together on part of the official closed road course, just like the half marathon runners.
Participation is FREE for schools.
Interested in getting your school involved?
If you work at a local school and would like to be involved in 2026, please fill out the form below. We will be sending out more information in June 2026:
Please note, we will only be contacting school staff/organisers, not parents. If you are a parent, please talk to your school to get involved.
2025 Registration Instructions
Step by step guide on how to register your child & adult runners:
You will have been sent two links in your email from schools@oxfordhalf.com. One link to claim or access your dashboard, and one link to register your runners.
Through the registration link, please register your lead adult first. This doesn’t need to be you, but the lead adult MUST be present and in-charge on event day.
You can then enter up to 40 children and 8 adults. If you aren’t going to use all of your child places, please let us know so we can reallocate these to another school.
You must have 1 adult registered for every 5 children for health and safety reasons.
Step by step guide on how to check and update your registrations in your dashboard:
Once you are in your dashboard, click on ‘Oxford Half School’s Challenge 2025’
Here you’ll see your school’s name next to a green button which says Multi Use. It should show 49 Total entries and 0 Total registered to start with. As you register runners, the total registered will increase.
Click the 3 dots on the right hand side to access your registered runners, click View entries.
Registered runners will have Registered next to their name in the Status column.
To delete a runner, select their line by clicking the box on the left next to their name. Click the Modify button on the top right of the table, then click Cancel. This will cancel the entry and free up one of your places automatically.
To register a new runner, head back to the registration link that was sent in the original email.