Schools and teachers have long been allocated responsibility for children’s health education and promotion according to policy expectations, curriculum arrangements or school pastoral care. The scope and scale of this responsibility appears to have grown exponentially over the past three decades. Following twenty years of research exploring these matters and delivering programs of HPE teacher education, Louise has returned to secondary schooling as Head of Pastoral Programs in a large co-educational school.

This presentation documents her endeavours to bridge the research-practice gap in devising effective and engaging school pastoral care and HPE programs. In conclusion, a suite of barriers, enablers and critical success factors are identified to support those charged with delivering these critical, health-related dimensions of contemporary schooling.