Access to sport in schools – are the risks just too high?

26 March 2026

Picture this: your child comes home from primary school and pleads with you to let them participate in a long jump qualifying activity before school so they can compete in the school athletics carnival. Sporting activities play a meaningful role in school life, and many families welcome the opportunity for their children to participate.

At what standard would you expect this activity to be held and facilitated at a primary school? There is no doubt there is social utility in schools providing opportunities for children to try and participate in different sports. In many sports however, there is a foreseeable risk of injury which is not necessarily caused due to a party’s negligence but rather, is simply part and parcel of the activity.

There is a lot of pressure on teachers today to do more than what is covered in their Bachelor of Education. From listening to family members who are teachers, it is clear their role asks far more of them than just teaching – it demands they be counsellors, protectors, advocates, mediators, interior designers, behavioural therapists, and the list goes on. The burden of carrying all these different hats has led to opportunities for children decreasing where risk assessments of activities prove timely and complex.

The New South Wales Court of Appeal decision of Stanberg v State of New South Wales [2025] NSWCA 127 is a prime example of the increasing responsibilities placed on teachers.

An 11-year-old boy sustained injuries to his lower back when he was performing his last long jump attempt during a school long jump activity. At the time of trial, the boy was 16 years of age and gave evidence that he perceived his feet impacted not just the sand, but the surface underneath causing his feet to slip forward and causing him to fall on his buttocks.

The activity was supervised by two teachers, and the school had new sand delivered and placed into the pit just over a month prior to the subject incident. There was a factual dispute around the amount of sand in the pit at the time of the incident and whether the bottom of the pit was lined with ‘softfall’ material.

While the trial judge considered the standards set for international athletic events by the International Association of Athletics Federations was not needed for school children, the Court of Appeal determined safety protocols published by Little Athletics Australia ought to be applied in schools.

The teachers who had come to school early to facilitate these sporting opportunities for children and in turn, the school, were taken to have breached their duty of care owed to the students by:

1. Failing to ensure there was an adequate amount of sand in the long jump pit; and

2. Failing to rake the pit after each child jumped but rather, they had a student raking the pit every two or three jumps.

It seems that beyond the expectations already placed on teachers to do more than just teach, they are expected to also be familiar with sometimes Olympic-level protocols to facilitate opportunities for students to participate in track and field events.

No one can question that activities facilitated by schools ought to be held in a safe way, however, even when the risk of injury is remote, the obligations on teachers and schools are now higher than ever before.

The ultimate flow-on effect of this decision could result in a floodgate of claims for children injured while engaged in activities at schools. In the subject case, teachers had come in early to facilitate the long jump trials. Could the long-term impact of this decision see teachers no longer willing to go the extra mile for their students in facilitating new opportunities simply because the risk of litigation is far too high?

 The ALA thanks Karla Macpherson for this contribution.

This is an edited version of an article first published by Travis Schultz & Partners 

The views and opinions expressed in this article are the authors and do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of the Australian Lawyers Alliance.

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