Associated Public Schools of Victoria

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.

Associated Public Schools of Victoria

Abbreviation	APS
Formation	1908
Headquarters	APS House Hawthorn, Victoria
Location	Melbourne, Victoria
Membership	Eleven member schools
Official language	English
Chair	Philip Grutzner Melbourne Grammar School (2024–2026)
Website	www.apssport.org.au

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

School	Location	Principal	Enrolment	Founded	Denomination	Boys/girls	Day/boarding	Year entered competition	School colours
Brighton Grammar School	Brighton	Ross Featherston	1,500	1882	Anglican	Boys	Day	1958
Carey Baptist Grammar School	Kew, Donvale	Jonathan Walter	2,600	1923	Baptist	Boys & Girls	Day	1958
Caulfield Grammar School	Caulfield, Malvern, Wheelers Hill, Yarra Junction, Nanjing	Ashleigh Martin	3,600	1881	Anglican	Boys & Girls	Day & Boarding	1958
The Geelong College	Newtown, Geelong	Peter Miller	1,500	1861	Associated with the Uniting Church[5]	Boys & Girls	Day & Boarding	1908
Geelong Grammar School	Corio, Geelong, Toorak, Timbertop	Rebecca Cody	1,500	1855	Anglican	Boys & Girls	Day & Boarding	1900
Haileybury	Brighton, Berwick, Keysborough, City, Tianjin, Darwin	Derek Scott	4,600	1892	Previously associated with the Uniting Church[5]	Boys & Girls	Day & Boarding	1958
Melbourne Grammar School	Melbourne, Caulfield	Philip Grutzner	1,900	1858	Anglican	Boys	Day & Boarding	1900
St Kevin's College	Toorak, Richmond	Deborah Barker	2,120	1918	Roman Catholic	Boys	Day	1958
Scotch College	Hawthorn	Scott Marsh	1,870	1851	Presbyterian	Boys	Day & Boarding	1900
Wesley College	Melbourne, Glen Waverley, Elsternwick	Nicholas Evans	3,400	1866	Associated with the Uniting Church[5]	Boys & Girls	Day & Boarding[6]	1900
Xavier College	Kew, Victoria	William Doherty	1,600	1872	Roman Catholic	Boys	Day & Boarding	1900

Sports

Boys Athletics Australian Rules Football Badminton Basketball Cricket Cross Country Diving (since 2015) Futsal European Handball Gymnastics Hockey Rowing Rugby (VSRU runs this competition) Sailing Soccer Squash Swimming & Diving (combined with Diving from 1998 to 2015) Table Tennis Tennis Touch Football (only Melbourne schools) Volleyball Water Polo

Girls Athletics Australian Rules Football Badminton Basketball Cross Country Diving (since 2015) Gymnastics Hockey Netball Rowing Soccer Softball Swimming & Diving (combined with Diving from 1998 to 2015) Tennis Touch Football Volleyball Water Polo

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

Further information: Head of the River (Victoria) and Head of the Schoolgirls (Victoria)

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

• List of schools in Victoria, Australia