School Sport response to Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into developing opportunities for schools to become a focus for p ro m o t i n g h e a lt h y c o m m u n it y l iv in g

EDUCATION AND TRAINING COMMITTEE PARLIAMENT OF

A joint submission to the Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into developing opportunities for schools to become a focus for promoting healthy community living

from the

Victorian Primary Schools' Sports Association

and the

Victorian Secondary Schools' Sports Association

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1. PURPOSE

The purpose of this submission is to identify the opportunities that the positive links between “quality” school sport and healthy living practices and their synergistic benefits offer local communities. This submission will highlight the importance of school sport and how it plays a central role in promoting healthy living communities.

School sport is the vehicle that enables daily and lifelong healthy living practices that are transferred between school, home and the local community. Instilling school sport values in an educative setting gives opportunities for students to develop their strategic capacity to make informed decisions in leading healthy and active lives.

School sport values include leadership, respect, fairness, responsibility, resilience and it also instils an ongoing desire to be healthy and active community members. International and local examples highlight the synergies between strong school sport and community partnerships

Underpinning stronger links with healthy living communities will be the positive outcomes of the implementation of the recommendations of the 2008 Review into the Structure of School Sport in Victoria. A significant initiative of this work is the new partnership between school communities, local sporting clubs and State Sporting Associations (SSAs).

2. VICTORIAN SCHOOL SPORT

For over 100 years the Victorian community has worked to support school sport. There are two organisations that carry the responsibility for school sport drawing on voluntary contributions of teachers, parents, community and sporting associations. The Victorian Primary Schools’ Sports Association (VPSSA) and the Victorian Secondary Schools’ Sports Association (VSSSA) organise events that cater for over 400,000 students every year. Since 1904, thousands of volunteers have worked with the respective Education Departments to provide opportunities for students to develop, be challenged and mature into excellence.

School sport has its origins deeply embedded in community involvement. For the initial eighty years school sport was driven by strong community demand with volunteers working closely with schools across the state in primary, secondary and technical schools. These volunteers were a critical part of this success story and assisted the creation of a more formal structure tied to the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD) which now serves Victorian schools.

The challenge now is to ensure that school sport is relevant for all students and reflects the governments’ legislative and policy intent in being fit for the twenty first century. This can only be achieved by fostering local initiatives and acknowledging the central part that community members play in linking school and local sport for the long term benefit of all.

These two organisations have evolved from earlier groups representing primary, central, and technical and high school sport. In the mid 1990s these two organisations became sub- committees of the Directorate of School Education and continued to offer organised school sport to support the government targets set out in the 1993 Review of Physical Education and Sport known as the Moneghetti Report.

Demographic changes and educational developments since that time have seen a growing need for schools to access diverse school sport options and for recognition of the expertise and resources required to provide positive, challenging and effective school sport programs. 2 School Sport response to Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into developing opportunities for schools to become a focus for p ro m o t i n g h e a lt h y c o m m u n it y l iv in g

Work undertaken by the Department with key sport stakeholders in the lead up to the establishment of the Victorian School Sport Council (VSSC) in 2007 agreed on principles that would support the school sport program promoting healthy, active and competitive opportunities for school students. The Council is the single point of reference across government for agencies associated with school sport and healthy lifestyles. Chaired by the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, Membership includes; VPSSA, VSSSA, VicHealth, VicSport, Municipal Association of Victoria, Department of Planning and Community Development, Australian Council of Health Physical Education and Recreation (Victoria), Association of Independent Schools Victoria, and the Catholic Education Office.

Early in February 2008, the Department in conjunction with the Victorian Primary and Victorian Secondary Schools Sports Associations, commissioned a project to review the organisational structure that supports the delivery of school sport in Victorian Schools, and to make recommendations about a structure that would support implementation into the future.

Key findings of the Review completed late 2008 acknowledged the tremendous contribution made by the school sport community on behalf of all Victorian students and the need to more positively promote and support school sport in Victoria. The Review also pointed to the need to make changes to ensure sustainability of the program in the long term and ease the workload pressures being broadly experienced.

Partnerships are a key feature of a successful school sport program. Schools with a strong sport program naturally work with their local communities, their parents, local councils and the business community. Strong school sports programs feature partnerships with local and state sporting bodies, with sporting clinics, come and try days and specialised coaching.

Schools collaborate across local and regional areas in a variety of organisational models to participate in regular competition that culminates in state championships. Students who excel are given opportunities to experience higher levels of competition and coaching expertise. Schools involved in these partnerships have greater access to facilities, venues, expertise and staff professional development.

Implementation of the review recommendations has reached a significant milestone with the ‘in principle agreement’ of the Victorian Secondary Schools’ Sports Association and the Victorian Primary Schools’ Sports Association to merge. This agreement will lead to the establishment of a single governance structure for school sport in Victoria which will be a powerful tool to promote healthy community living via its network of schools, students and volunteers.

Consultation with State Sporting Associations (SSAs) is also underway which will lead to formal partnerships being put in place with these groups as part of new sport sub- committee’s which will further strengthen linkages between schools and community sport.

3. CONTEXT

There is a fundamental link between physical activity and health. Across the globe, the concern for the growing number of overweight and obese children is quite heightened. This means that major health and social issues for many societies have many jurisdictions looking towards schools and physical education programs to provide the solutions. In turn, physical activity has been linked to positive self esteem in children, skill development, skeletal health, healthy development and cardiovascular health. It is now widely established that childhood is the best time to establish positive attitudes and behaviour relating to physical activity and a healthy lifestyle.

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Physical education and school sport offer schools programs that can improve students’ concentration, memory, behaviour and academic performance. Schools wanting to lift the performance and outcomes for their students will offer programs designed to maximise participation, enjoyment and personal reward. High performing schools utilise physical education and school sport programs to help motivate students and support learners in their academic work.

The Victorian Government has for many years supported the importance of a healthy active lifestyle and one of the key platforms has been the requirement of schools to provide students with regular school sport and physical education activities.

The requirement for schools is:

• Years P–3: 20 – 30 minutes of physical education a day • Years 4–6: three hours per week of physical education and sport with a minimum provision of 50 per cent for physical education • Years 7–10: 100 minutes per week for physical education and 100 minutes per week for sport.

Schools that integrate the mandated activity requirements as part of their cross-curricular programs build a culture of excellence across their school community. These schools have strong partnerships with community organisations that enable them to be strong participants in intra and inter school sport.

4. RESEARCH

The importance of sport as a means to achieve wider social, health, economic and environmental outcomes has been increasingly recognised by the Commonwealth Government and others over recent years. Much of the increased investment in sport that has occurred from the various tiers of Government to date was founded on the argument of ‘sport for good’ as opposed to ‘sport for sport’s sake’. However, with this justification has come an increasing challenge to demonstrate with ‘hard’ scientific evidence the benefits that are often attributed to sport and its impact on the community.

There is also growing evidence that physical education and sport have positive influences on student academic achievement:

Students do not suffer academically from increased time participating in physical education and sport, and studies indicate that their academic performance actually increases as a result. Physical activity has been demonstrated to have a positive effect on concentration, memory and classroom behaviour.1

Since 2000 the English Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) has been working with primary, secondary, special schools and partnerships to improve the quality of Physical Education and Sport Education (PESS) and to explore the difference that high quality PESS can make to young people and their schools. One strand of this investigation was the Physical Education, School Sport and Club Links Strategy (PESSCL). The impact of investing in PESS has seen significant positive outcomes across a range of whole school outcomes. One of the positive outcomes was improved grade attainment across the curriculum:

All of the schools involved in the investigation from the outset have seen improvements in national curriculum test and results. Schools that have joined more recently have also begun to see some improvement in many subjects across the curriculum. Although it is often difficult 4 School Sport response to Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into developing opportunities for schools to become a focus for p ro m o t i n g h e a lt h y c o m m u n it y l iv in g to relate improvements in attainment across the curriculum directly to investment in Physical Education and Sport, many head teachers feel that it has had a significant impact.2

In a current Canberra primary school study conducted by Dr Richard Telford, researchers found a positive correlation between higher levels of physical activity in eight to ten-year- olds, measured with a pedometer, and higher scores on national literacy and numeracy tests.3

5. GOOD PRACTICE MODELS

Policy Since 1999 the Victorian Government has set priorities to make Victoria a better place in which to live, work and raise a family.

There are a range of Government initiatives that capture an integrated and holistic approach to the vision of quality health and education.

Schools

Koonung Secondary College in Mont Albert North is a great example of a school promoting healthy living communities. The school has successfully formed a working partnership to pull together resources from local government, community sporting groups, an independent school and the wider school community to develop a fully utilised hockey Astroturf facility.

The facility is fully lit and will host Hockey Victoria fixtured matches for juniors and veteran men’s competition. The Camberwell Hockey Club has contributed to the cost of the lighting and has a long term licence agreement to train and play matches on the pitch. The facility has also hosted training for the local lacrosse club. In addition Mont Albert Club juniors will use the new cricket nets attached to the facility. The Koonung Comets Junior Club is also a long term tenant using the basketball stadium for training throughout the week and interclub matches on Saturdays.

The benefits to students and local community include ‘no water’ all year facility for school students with free access at recess and lunchtimes for leisure activity, teaching facility for physical education and sport education during school hours and a venue for interschool sport at minimal cost to participating schools. Reduced cost facility for training for junior state hockey teams eg u/16 boys and girls state hockey teams partnership with Camberwell Grammar School has enhanced community relationships. The facility is also used for in the summer months as it has 12 tennis courts and portable nets. The tennis courts will be used in the same way as the hockey pitch.

Mill Park Secondary College has been a fortunate recipient of collaboration between the City of Whittlesea and DEECD to construct a fantastic sporting facility on the school grounds. This Tiger Turf surface is the largest of its kind in the , and provides students at the Senior Campus with their first real playing surface in the 12 year history of the college. Students can use the two soccer pitches, the oval and a cricket pitch. At weekends and on the evenings, the facilities are hired out by the City Of Whittlesea to a range of community groups. Apart from the obvious advantages, one of the most important outcomes has been the development of a strong professional relationship between the school and the City of Whittlesea. Regular meetings and continual monitoring of the facility has led to a better understanding and personal connections that enhance the opportunities they, as a broader community, can provide to their students.

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Sport and Physical Education are very popular at Mill Park SC, both as subject choices and in terms of extra curricula participation. The school fields teams in most sports offered in both the summer and winter inter school competitions, and regularly win through to regional level, with some success at the state level over the years. In the past the school has been hampered by the lack of training facilities, but now they have the capacity to develop the enormous talent they know exists in the school. The first group to use the new facility were the senior soccer team, training for the interschool competition - none of this would have been possible without the combined efforts and cooperation of community partnerships.

Mornington Secondary College is located in a semi rural township, which like many other parts of has identified health issues relating to lack of physical activity and childhood obesity. The college is being developed into a broad community physical activity centre targeting over 4,000 students, staff and parents from the college and the numerous local primary schools. The aim is to have every student at the college increase their level of participation in extracurricular activities which promote physical activity or healthy lifestyle.

In 2007 the college made a conscious decision to develop up a culture of physical activity and healthy lifestyles that can be used as a model for broader community delivery and which provides opportunities for participation which do not currently exist for students and their families in the community.

The project developed with the assistance of a Commonwealth Government grant provides opportunities for individuals, the school community and local organisations to be involved at all levels. Participation in activities before school, at lunchtimes and after school have been designed to increase the physical well being of the students of Mornington Secondary College and it has also provided greater connection to their learning environment and to the many organisations that exist in the local community. Greater levels of participation in physical activity at lunchtimes decreased the amount of unrest and provided avenues for students to release stress which has been created in their often unsettled home lives.

External organisations have embraced the opportunity to work with and build relationships with students whom they did not have much involvement with.

Partners include: Mornington District Basketball Association, Kiddieswim Swim School, Peninsula Secondary School Sports Association, AFL Victoria, Storm Club, local primary schools, DEECD Southern Metropolitan Regional, local Member of Parliament, Mornington Shire Council, Mornington Soccer Club and the Mornington Association.

The College has through partnerships with outside organisations arranged opportunities for students to become involved in numerous activity opportunities targeting varied ability and interest levels. At the higher level of physical skill, specialised coaching is available through professional coaches in areas such as: , triathlon, aerobics, athletics, baseball, basketball, volleyball, rugby, football, and badminton. These students have opportunities to focus on particular sports which will then encourage them to have a greater level of participation outside of school. These organisations have also been exposed to the skill level of the students of Mornington Secondary College creating a strong link between the school and local sporting clubs.

Students as well as staff of the secondary colleges and the local primary schools have also had opportunities to participate in Level One and Two coaching courses, umpiring/referee courses to enable skills to become embedded into the College culture and therefore sustainable. These specialised sessions are occurring before and after school, lunchtimes

6 School Sport response to Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into developing opportunities for schools to become a focus for p ro m o t i n g h e a lt h y c o m m u n it y l iv in g and at times as incursion activities for students to sign up to participate. At the junior year levels of year 7 and 8 a portion of this would be built into the timetable.

The College has also reintroduced the House System for College sport which had not existed for a number of years. This has also increased the participation level of students in sport and also improved connectedness of students to their school.

For students who are at risk of weight related chronic diseases, programs and specialised consultants, including local medical practitioners, have been engaged to facilitate a program in regard to body image, healthy eating programs, self esteem to complement and enhance programs which currently exist within the school. Low impact activities are being made available to encourage students to participate in physical leisure activities. The exposure to the expertise of these people would provide valuable professional development for the sustainability of the project.

The lunchtime activity coordinator has organised structured programs to operate around the College which encourage students to participate in physical activity. Using the extensive College facilities as well as some additional low cost facilities, regular lunchtime competitions are organised in activities such as indoor soccer, indoor cricket, indoor hockey, basketball, volleyball, badminton etc. Competitions encourage maximum participation, good sportsmanship and school spirit.

Students from the local primary schools are transported to the College by bus for half day sessions of physical activity. The sessions involve up to 150 students at a time. Each feeder school has 2 days per term where they send 300 students for physical activities. This has represented over 2,750 students per term so far in 2009. These activities are conducted by sports development officers, physical education teachers, student teachers, sports trainees, Mornington Secondary College students, local community sporting club coaches and parents from both primary and secondary schools.

Laburnum Primary School in Blackburn South has a before school running/jogging program for students held in an adjacent parkland run by parents with an 18 year history – (600 m track). Participants receive a certificate and rewards for sessions attended.

The Laburnum Club has a long history of teams comprised of Laburnum Primary School girls (past & present). They play in a Saturday competition in the Vermont South Association providing valuable links between school sport and lifelong physical and social activity.

The school also has strong links with the Nunawading/Blackburn Vikings – Basketball Clubs. The school facilities are used for training and Saturday games and a large number of school children play for the clubs. Before school training is provided during the week at school with many parents and the physical education teacher coaching teams.

With dedicated parent/teacher community support the school regularly instigates full athletic/cross country and inter-school sport programs. Laburnum PS also participates in the Hockey 7’s, McDonalds Hooptime and Blackburn High Sports Leadership programs enhancing the transition between both primary and secondary school and between school sport and community sport.

Brunswick South West and Brunswick North Primary Schools have run programs in partnership with the Brunswick Fencing Club, Basketball Victoria and the Coburg Basketball Club, (promoting the start of the cricket season and girls cricket), Brunswick Hockey Club, and Moreland Soccer Club. They also have an after-school program in Circus 7 School Sport response to Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into developing opportunities for schools to become a focus for p ro m o t i n g h e a lt h y c o m m u n it y l iv in g and Drama and a dance group that uses the school’s facilities. In addition to this, at Brunswick North PS a ballet school hires facilities for a ballet school. They also work with the local council to promote ride-to-school days and other local government programs.

Neerim South Primary School shares a one court stadium with the local High School and several community groups. These include the basketball club, football club, Auskick, netball, and in the upstairs area a dance club operate as well as table tennis. This was funded jointly by DEECD and a community loan that was repaid. The local Council has given grants from time to time to upgrade the facility which is incredibly popular with local residents and students.

St. Laurence O’Toole Primary School, Leongatha has a number of informal relationships with sporting clubs. Koonwarra Cricket Club uses their gym facilities for cricket training. St. Laurence's Netball Club uses school facilities for netball training and as a venue for end of year presentation night. Leongatha Kindergarten, associated with the school also uses gym facilities for their end of year concert. Zone sports are held at the Leongatha Velodrome for no charge and the Leongatha Little Athletics Club allows usage of their equipment at no charge.

Bialik College, Hawthorn East has many activities that take place before and after school. The swimming pool is used by local primary schools for swimming lessons.

Two indoor basketball courts are frequently used before and after school by Maccabi Basketball Club, Prahran Netball competitions, Hawthorn Basketball Association, Viking Futsal, Floorball, Soccerwise (soccer training for lower primary), and the Hawthorn Titans Basketball Club for training. The Hall is used 7 days a week, by Fitness for Fun, offering Kinder Gym, Recreational Gymnastics and Gymnastics Parties. Trampolining and Circus classes are also offered. Four tennis/netball courts are utilised by Inside Edge for private tennis lessons, Maccabbi Netball Club and the Maccabi Junior Soccer Club.

The outdoor all-weather court is utilised by Soccerwise, Richmond Junior Soccer Club and Viking Futsal. The weights/gymnasium room offers a boutique health club, offered outside school hours for the public.

Overview of Good Practice Models These positive school practice models highlights the benefits for schools to be positively engaged in sport and physical education as well as the importance that school sport can play. Schools are making a positive contribution by linking with local sporting clubs and communities to enhance students learning and to further their knowledge, skills and healthy lifestyles. This is a crucial link which will in some instances become a lifelong association with a local community group leading to a far healthier and more connected community group.

With the emergence of a single school sport body, a significant opportunity is created to shape positive and holistic school sport experiences and transfer that into the broader community to support healthy and active lifestyles. Work on the seamless transition, values, and strong citizenship issues need to continue.

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6. RECOMMENDATIONS

The VPSSA and the VSSSA make the following recommendations on how schools can become the focus for promoting healthy community living:

• That the Parliamentary Committee recognises the value of school sport as a pivotal player linking schools and communities with respect to the overall development and long term health of Victoria’s student population

• That schools be acknowledged and supported by the provision of appropriate resources in undertaking that pivotal role

• That the school sport workforce be recognised for their leadership and contribution to building stronger communities

• That the strengthening of partnerships between schools and State Sporting Associations, VicSport and other relevant government and non government sector organisations be acknowledged as benefiting the overall health long term benefit of Victorian students

• That the Parliamentary Committee provides a direction to schools receiving Building Education Revolution funds for joint community/school facilities as to best practice in maximising healthy community living.

Brad Allen Rob Carroll President VPSSA President VSSSA

Endnotes:

1. Physical education, school physical activity, school sports and academic performance. François Trudeau and Roy J Shephard 2008 2 Qualifications and Curriculum Authority – www.qca.org.uk – The impact of investing in PESS 3 Lynette Hoffman, The Australian Newspaper, 13 June, 2009

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