Widely recognized as a prominent and accessible setting with incredible reach, schools are critical spaces and places for children’s physical activity. Over the past two decades, we have seen a paradigm shift toward a whole-of-school approach to increase and improve physical activity opportunities. This shift includes an emphasis on targeting multiple domains within the comprehensive school day when designing interventions and programs, as well as aligning physical activity objectives with social, emotional, and learning outcomes. Despite the potential, establishing and sustaining practices in schools remains a challenge given the complexity of school systems and environments. This presentation will include an overview of two school-based physical activity projects in Arizona, highlighting the potential of community partnerships and surveillance to embed and promote a culture of active schools.

Food is a strong lever for both human and planetary health. Around half of children in high income countries attend childcare for an average of 30 hours per week, often being provided with 1 main meal and 2 snacks per day. The childcare setting therefore offers a promising opportunity to cultivate food practices that can benefit the health of the child and the health of the planet. In this presentation I will discuss the overall theme of my PhD “Healthy, environmentally sustainable food provision in childcare”. I will provide an overview of the three main studies, which include quantitative, qualitative and co-design research methodologies. Results of studies conducted and currently underway will be shared, including the complexities and changes made due to COVID restrictions, implications for practice and policy, and insights on where I believe this research might lead.

During summer, primary school children increase their BMI at an accelerated rate compared to the school year. Our data showed that about 18 percent of children began a trajectory toward overweight or obesity when children were 5-8 years old with summer BMI increases contributing substantially. We have observed that during summer, students experience changes in their sleep and activity patterns, resulting in later sleep timing, shorter sleep duration, increased sedentary behavior, and decreased light physical activity. However, only later sleep timing during summer predicted increases in BMI during summer. The Circadian and Circannual Rhythm Model of Accelerated Summer weight gain posits these changes in sleep and activity patterns influence children’s exposure to the light-dark cycle, resulting in changes in their height and weight gain. We have developed a novel circadian rhythm and sleep-focused mHealth intervention for the prevention of accelerated summer weight gain, which is in feasibility testing.

Active travel, organised sport and physical education are important sources of physical activity for children and young people. Understanding which domain of physical activity should be promoted to most efficiently increase physical activity is informative for intervention design, policy development and infrastructure investment. Through harmonising data from the International Children’s Accelerometry Database, we examined cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between domain-specific physical activity and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. The findings support a need for a multi-sectoral approach where sports, transport, urban design, and public and private organisations work together to give all children and young people access to safe, equitable and varied opportunities to be active. During the talk, I will share benefits and challenges of the harmonisation, and how this experience has allowed me to create opportunities for international collaborations and develop knowledge and skills to be an interdisciplinary researcher and to work with a multidisciplinary team.