Independent Girls' Schools Sporting Association

[1] The IGSA Sport Committee (formerly IGSSA) organises competitions among 32 independent girls' schools in New South Wales.

[1] IGSA Sport graded competitions are held on Saturday mornings and involve between 5000 and 6300 participants each term.

[76] In both sports, schools compete in divisions (three for swimming and two for diving) based on their results from the previous year.

She was a pupil of Normanhurst School,[3] which in 1918 had as its Headmistress, Miss Evelyn Mary Tildesley (1882–1976) from Staffordshire, England.

It was Tildesley who donated "a beautiful oak and bronze shield"[3] for a tennis competition which encouraged team spirit among Sydney's Protestant girls' schools.

[3] The continuous attempts to redraft the conditions of the Shield are largely due to the prestigious place the competition holds in Independent Girls' School Tennis.

If Miss Tildesley had wished the Shield to be reserved for the champions, which would have led to her school winning more often, then the conditions of play would have been much different.

However, Tildesley, along with her sister Beatrice and Mr Henry Marsh, who had developed the concept with her, insisted that the school with the best average of games won the Shield.

[3]In 1998, Mr Peter Spender donated a trophy for the Most Improved Tildesley Shield Tournament School, in memory of his wife Diane Greaves, an ex–SCEGGS Darlinghurst student.

Any school who improves their position from the previous year automatically becomes eligible to win the Spender trophy.

Today the Tildesley Shield Competition is open to all IGSSA schools, with 24 of them typically choosing to compete, and takes place at Eastwood Thornleigh District Tennis Association courts at Pennant Hills, New South Wales over three consecutive days, usually in March / April.