School Sport Victoria launches refreshed strategic priorities for 2026 to 2030
School Sport Victoria has refreshed its strategic priorities for 2026 to 2030, to deliver on its purpose and 10-year goals.
The initial 10-year strategy, Strategic Directions 2020 to 2030, aims to provide a clear direction for School Sport Victoria to engage more Victorian students in school sport by creating more opportunities to participate and addressing future challenges. It set out key priorities and strategies for the first 5 years, 2020 to 2025, with this refreshed strategy now setting clear priorities for the remaining period of 2026 to 2030.
School Sport Victoria’s purpose is to develop young people through school sport and to support schools to maximise opportunities for all students to play sport. By 2030, the goal is to provide 800,000 school sport participation opportunities to Victorian students each year.
The refreshed strategy outlines key areas of focus across School Sport Victoria’s role, which is:
- PLAY - providing inclusive and accessible participative and competitive opportunities in school sport to involve a wider range of Victorian students.
- VALUE - enhancing the role of school sport as part of a whole school approach to physical activity and physical literacy of all students.
- CONNECT - facilitating partnerships between schools and communities through school sport to support lifelong participation in physical activity.
The refreshed strategy highlights areas of additional focus for School Sport Victoria, which are:
- Increasing opportunities for students with disability, including reducing barriers to support participation in school sport pathways,
- Ensuring our school sport workforce is providing a quality experience for students, and building in measures for future workforce sustainability, and
- Lead the alignment of school sport pathways with state and national sport organisation pathways, to strengthen collaboration and leverage resources.
Other areas of focus within the strategy include exploring pathways for students to develop as officials and coaches, providing accessible information that is relevant and timely for schools, teachers and families and promoting leadership and career development pathways for teachers through school sport.
The strategy aligns with the Department of Education Strategic Plan 2025 to 2029 and supports delivery of Education State priorities.
School Sport Victoria CEO, Rayoni Nelson highlights that “school is often where children play a sport for the first time, and for some, the only opportunity to play sport.”
“Sport plays an important role in students’ physical, social and education development.” Research shows that playing sport as a child supports better school engagement, being more attentive at school and better academic performance.
“We look forward to partnering and working with organisations, including schools, councils, state and national sporting organisations and sector organisations to provide opportunities for students to play sport, from local through to national levels, whilst enabling connection to community participation pathways.”
With its 2026 to 2030 strategic directions now in place, School Sport Victoria is focussed on engaging more Victorian students in school sport.
School Sport Victoria Strategic Directions Priorities for 2026-2030 (Full PDF)
School Sport Victoria Strategic Directions Priorities for 2026-2030 (1 Pager)
