‘It’s time to act for better health outcomes for our Aussie kids’: Mobilising health literacy for change through the Curriculum

Health literacy (HL) and education are determinants capable of addressing inequity. HL can be defined as the ability to access, understand and use health information and services for better health. This discussion paper examines the educative purpose of Health and Physical Education (HPE) and reinforces why HL should be an assessable outcome of HPE curriculum in Australian schools. In reference to the literature, we position schools as important settings for HL development and unpack the problem of health education (HE) being marginalised as part of HPE and within the whole school approach to health promotion. We propose ways for teachers to optimise HL development in HE classrooms to foster a health-supporting culture in schools. We theorise HL as a logical, progressive outcome of HE in schools and argue that teachers require greater support to be more accountable in ensuring young people develop their knowledge and capabilities to be health-literate citizens.