Where to next for school playground interventions to encourage active play? An exploration of structured and unstructured school playground strategies

An emerging public health priority is to enhance children’s opportunities for active play. Children spend a large proportion of weekdays in schools, making schools an influential and suitable setting to promote children’s active play. Rather than continually increasing the burdens placed upon busy teaching staff, the use of school playground interventions have emerged as a critical strategy within schools to facilitate and develop children’s active play via an informal curriculum. This scholarly article provides a research-based commentary on a range of school playground interventions to encourage both structured and unstructured active play opportunities. Additionally, future research directions for school playground research to encourage children’s active play will be discussed. Teachers, educational leaders, designers, researchers and play professionals can consider the findings from this article for future school playground intervention and planning to facilitate children’s active play within school playgrounds.