Schools and settings such as outside school hours care services are positioned as ideal avenues for physical activity promotion and for supporting health and wellbeing outcomes for children and young people. While this might seem like a straightforward proposition, the realities of organised systems serving these populations are highly varied and complex, and interventions in such settings often demonstrate mixed or modest postive effects on physical activity outcomes.
Drawing on results from multiple projects, alongside broader evidence from the Australian physical activity landscape (e.g., the Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Young People), this presentation will highlight key elements for the effective and sustainable promotion of physical activity for children and young people in organised settings. Guided by an ecological perspective, the presentation will examine considerations related to conceptual or theoretical framing, participatory approaches and multi-stakeholder collaboration, implementation evaluation, and the critical role of context and context-specific design.
Together, these insights aim to inform more responsive, impactful, and scalable approaches to physical activity promotion for children and young people across diverse settings.