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.

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. 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.

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. The headquarters of the APS is known as APS House and is located on Church Street in Hawthorn, Victoria.