Associated Public Schools of Victoria

Last updated

Associated Public Schools of Victoria
AbbreviationAPS
Formation1908
HeadquartersAPS House
Hawthorn, Victoria
Location
MembershipEleven member schools
Official language
English
Chair
Philip Grutzner
Melbourne Grammar School
(2024–2026)
Website www.apssport.org.au

The Associated Public Schools of Victoria (APS) are a group of eleven independent schools in Victoria, Australia, similar to the Athletic Association of the Great Public Schools in New South Wales, the Great Public Schools Association in Queensland, and the Public Schools Association in Western Australia. The descriptor "Public School" references the historical usage of the term and the model of the British public school.

Contents

The first meet of Public Schools Sports was held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 30 November 1870 with Melbourne Grammar School, Scotch College and Wesley College competing and winning that order. [1] The Association was established in 1908 so member schools may compete against each other on the sporting fields, the original competition sports were Australian Rules Football, Athletics, Rowing and Cricket. [2]

Students now compete in a variety of sports, which are split into three seasons, Summer, Winter and Spring. Students in Year 7 and above compete on Saturdays and students in primary year levels compete on Wednesday afternoons. Major annual competitions include the APS Head of the River Rowing Regattas, the APS Combined Swimming & Diving Championships and the APS Combined Athletics Championships.

In 2001, the APS and Associated Grammar Schools of Victoria coordinated to form a combined AGSV/APS girls' sport program. This was due to the establishment of Girls Sport Victoria in 2000 after a letter was sent to principals of Melbourne Girls Grammar School, Firbank Girls' Grammar School, Genazzano FCJ College, Loreto Mandeville Hall Toorak, Presbyterian Ladies' College and Toorak College from the APS, inviting them to join their association, which they all refused. The new AGSV/APS girls' sport program was established to provide opportunities for fair competition to female students of schools from both associations. Of the twenty AGSV/APS schools, twelve are co-educational, eight are boys-only and none are girls-only. As such, most of the sporting competitions are dominated by boys and the opportunities for girls' sport are relatively limited in both associations. The AGSV/APS girls competition runs for the Summer and Winter seasons (not applying to the Athletics, Swimming or other sport that is contested outside the main seasons) and is separate from the boys competition, which remains APS-only.

In March 2005, the APS member schools formed a set of guidelines regarding the awarding of sporting scholarships to students, following criticism of recruiting practices employed by some schools. [3] The headquarters of the APS is known as APS House and is located on Church Street in Hawthorn, Victoria. [4]

Schools

Current member schools

SchoolLocationPrincipalEnrolmentFoundedDenominationBoys/girlsDay/boardingYear entered
competition		School colours
Brighton Grammar School Brighton Ross Featherston1,5001882 Anglican BoysDay1958  
Carey Baptist Grammar School Kew, Donvale Jonathan Walter2,6001923 Baptist Boys & GirlsDay1958   
Caulfield Grammar School Caulfield, Malvern, Wheelers Hill, Yarra Junction, Nanjing Ashleigh Martin3,6001881 Anglican Boys & GirlsDay & Boarding1958  
The Geelong College Newtown, Geelong Peter Miller1,5001861Associated with the Uniting Church [5] Boys & GirlsDay & Boarding1908   
Geelong Grammar School Corio, Geelong,

Toorak, Timbertop

Rebecca Cody1,5001855 Anglican Boys & GirlsDay & Boarding1900 
Haileybury Brighton, Berwick, Keysborough, City, Tianjin, Darwin Derek Scott4,6001892Previously associated with the Uniting Church [5] Boys & GirlsDay & Boarding1958   
Melbourne Grammar School Melbourne, Caulfield Philip Grutzner1,9001858 Anglican BoysDay & Boarding1900 
St Kevin's College Toorak, Richmond Deborah Barker2,1201918 Roman Catholic BoysDay1958   
Scotch College Hawthorn Scott Marsh1,8701851 Presbyterian BoysDay & Boarding1900   
Wesley College Melbourne, Glen Waverley, Elsternwick Nicholas Evans3,4001866Associated with the Uniting Church [5] Boys & GirlsDay & Boarding [6] 1900  
Xavier College Kew, Victoria William Doherty1,6001872 Roman Catholic BoysDay & Boarding1900  

Sports

Combined Sports

Students from the Association's member schools participate in a number of Combined Sports (Championship Carnivals) during the year including Swimming, Diving, Rowing and Athletics.

The APS Regatta

The Victorian Head of the River race is contested between the eleven APS schools, the race is usually the last race of the official APS rowing season and has recently been rowed on Lake Nagambie which is a full buoyed international standard course allowing six boat finals. Girls from the APS also participate in the Head of the Schoolgirls regatta, where they compete with schools from the Girls Sport Victoria (GSV) group.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Public School Sports, The Pioneer Meetings". The Australasian. 26 October 1918.
  2. ↑ "Associated Public Schools of Victoria, Celebrating 100 Years" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 October 2009. Retrieved 21 March 2010.
  3. ↑ Leung, Chee Chee (29 March 2005). "Top schools pledge to play fair". The Age.
  4. ↑ "Associated Public Schools of Victoria". APS Sports. Retrieved 3 September 2012.
  5. 1 2 3 "Associated Schools". Uniting Church in Australia. Synod of Victoria and Tasmania. Retrieved 8 November 2021.
  6. ↑ "Boarding returns to Wesley - Wesley College". www.wesleycollege.net. Archived from the original on 20 January 2015.
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