Grants announced to encourage active kids through Active Schools

The Andrews Labor Government’s Active Schools initiative is helping Victorian students get active with further support for schools to encourage physical activity as well as offer exciting community sports programs announced today.

Minster for Education, Natalie Hutchins said, “Regular physical activity makes a huge difference to young people’s mental and physical health as well as their educational outcomes – that’s why we’re investing in Active Schools to give every student the opportunity to find an activity they love.”

This morning, Minister Hutchins and AFLW Carlton star Darcy Vescio visited Ardeer South Primary School to celebrate the school being one of 96 schools to receive an Active Schools grant this year.

These school grants form part of the Active Schools initiative to give Victorian kids the skills, confidence and motivation to be active for life.

The grant has transformed Ardeer South PS into a hive of football activity – using its funding to completely resurface the school oval and install new goal posts so kids can get into footy both during and after school and allowing the school to compete in interschool AFL competitions.

On top of their Active Schools grant, in the past year Ardeer South Primary School has also received two physical education and sports funding boosts to increase their school’s physical education budget.

The Labor Government has today also announced more than $641,000 for new ‘innovative behaviour’ trials in some Victorian government schools, which will test the most effective ways to encourage adolescents to do more physical activity and maintain healthy habits for life.

ACHPER Victoria congratulates the Andrews Labor Government’s ongoing commitment to supporting more kids to be more active more often with the recent Victorian Budget 2022/23 investment of more than $20.8 million to boost the Active Schools program and promote long-term health and wellbeing in young Victorians bringing the financial investment in this initiative to $45.4m since 2019.

The Active Schools initiative enables greater achievements across schools to support children’s wellbeing. Quality health and physical education and whole of school approaches to physical activity are the cornerstones of a lifelong love of movement and improved wellbeing. The focus on exploring increased engagement in physical activity and sport in adolescents is critical and schools can play an important role in addressing this challenge.

If you need further support to implement an Active Schools program at your government-funded school, please email [email protected] or visit the Active Schools Online Community for more information.