Top private schools take steps to ‘enhance’ girls’ sport

Key elite private schools have banded together to “enhance the girls’ sport competition” in co-ed schools where girls do battle with boys for equal access to coaches, staff and facilities.

Principals are aiming to ‘enhance the girls’ sport competition’ as part of the APS sport review.

Key elite private schools are banding together to address the “second-class” status of girls’ sports at co-educational schools.

As part of the ongoing Associated Public Schools (APS) sport review, principals are aiming to “enhance the girls’ sports competition”.

For years, girls playing traditionally male sports such as rowing, cricket and football at co-educational schools — many of which were originally boys’ only schools — have battled to get equal access to coaches, ovals, support staff and facilities.

One former APS co-educational school student told the Herald Sun “the boys’ footy teams get the former AFL players as coaches while the girls get the PE teacher”.

“We can’t always train on the main ovals, and have to battle to get the same opportunities and awards as the boys,” she said.

“It often feels a bit second-rate.”

Former Cats player Jimmy Bartel has just been appointed head of football at Caulfield Grammar School. Picture: AFP

Former AFL players coaching at private schools include ex-Cats player Jimmy Bartel, who has just been appointed head of football at Caulfield Grammar School, and Essendon great Matthew Lloyd who works at Haileybury.

Traditionally, such well-known figures coach the boys’ first teams but not the girls’ teams.

As part of the review’s next steps, a sub-committee of schools from the APS, which includes five elite boys’ schools and six co-ed schools, will join schools from the Associated Grammar Schools of Victoria to “enhance the girls’ sports competition”.

The sub-committee will include Caulfield Grammar principal Ashleigh Martin, Haileybury principal Derek Scott, Penleigh and Essendon Grammar principal Kate Dullard and Ivanhoe Grammar Principal Gerard Foley.

The APS update notes that “this collaborative initiative aims to deliver high-quality opportunities for all students while respecting the independence of both systems and does not indicate any APS co-educational schools transitioning to the AGSV or vice versa”.

For years, girls playing traditionally male sports at co-educational schools have battled to get equal access to coaches, ovals, support staff and facilities. Picture: Getty Images

A spokesperson from Ivanhoe Grammar School has confirmed that the “principal Gerard Foley will be part of a representative group of Principals from both the APS and AGS, exploring ways of enhancing the sporting experience for students in their schools”.

“Preliminary discussions are to take place shortly to set the goals and timelines for this important review.”

Michelle Barry, executive office of Girls’ Sport Victoria, which runs a competition involving 20 sports for 24 girls’ schools, said the “advantage of a girls’ schools competition is the focus on only girls”.

Other key interim findings of the landmark APS review, which started at the beginning of 2024, include “unanimous support” for sport “as an integral part of student life”.

However, the latest briefing paper notes that “schools continue to have the flexibility to align their participation in APS sport with their educational programs and students’ unique needs”.

As the Herald Sun has previously reported, some schools are moving away from year-found compulsory competitive sports like football and rowing in favour of physical activities such as walking, yoga and pilates.