Table 1

Best practice guidelines, selected from the Guide to the National Quality Standards for reporting of HEPA promotion behaviours in OSHC

National Quality StandardsDirect observationSOSPANAccelHAAND
Healthy eating environment
 Engage children in experiences and conversations that promote mealtimes to be enjoyable and promote healthy, balanced lifestyles.✓   
 Use cooking experiences to further children’s understanding of food and nutrition.✓   
 Never use food to reward children.✓✓  
 Sit and eat with children and model healthy eating and nutrition practices during mealtimes.✓   
 Provide food and beverages consistent with the Australian Dietary Guidelines.✓  ✓
 Provide foods and drinks consistent with the menu.✓✓ ✓
 Access to water throughout the day.✓✓  
Physical activity environment
 Implement physical games and activities as part of the programme and encourage children to participate. ✓  
 Become involved and demonstrate enjoyment in children’s physical activity. ✓  
 Children should have frequent opportunities to engage in active play. ✓ ✓
 Children should lead physical play activities with peers. ✓  
 Opportunity for dance, creative movement and drama and respond to music. ✓ ✓
 Provide resources and equipment to support children to participate in physical activity. ✓  
Additional measures*
 Nutrition and physical activity policies.   ✓
 Children accumulate 30 min MVPA in the hours before and after school.  ✓ 
 Annual nutrition and physical activity staff training.   ✓

  • This is not an exhaustive list of best practice behaviours, only those that could be reported on by the selected tools used within this study. Some of the descriptions have been summarised within this table.

  • *Additional measures are not found within the Guide to the National Quality Standards.

  • Accel, accelerometer; HAAND, Healthy Afterschool Activity and Nutrition Document; HEPA, healthy eating and physical activity; MVPA, moderate-to-vigorous physical activity; OSHC, out-of-school hours care; SOSPAN, System for Observing Staff Promotion of Activity and Nutrition.