"We move kids"-The consensus report from the roundtable to examine strategies for promoting walking in the school environment

In conjunction with the Walking for Health Conference, a Roundtable with 12 physical education teachers and 11 pedagogy researchers and public health professionals was organized to initiate a dialog between practicing school teachers and a group of researchers to identify practical and effective strategies for increasing physical activity, particularly walking, in the school setting. Discussions were organized on the following major themes: (1) promoting physical activity, (2) barriers for physical activity promotion in children, and (3) integrating physical activity with other health behaviors in the curriculum. There was a focus that came through on strategies to overcome barriers to allow opportunities for students to increase their physical activity levels. These strategies require the commitment not only of physical education teachers but also of their fellow teachers, school administrators, parents, local community members, and of course the students themselves. The issue of limited resources continually came up, thus realistically limiting strategies to those that could be implemented without additional cost. Any progress to be made with respect to the implementation of these strategies depends on the infrastructure of support that can be built on the excellent recommendations provided by the Roundtable focus groups.