This paper locates the issue of curriculum content within the philosophical roots of physical literacy in relation to the importance of interaction with the environment. It sets out briefly the concept of movement patterns and their development and argues for the importance of a broad and balanced experience in a range of Movement Forms. Finally the paper suggests an alternative approach to the use of extra-curricular time. In these ways it provides some answers to the question ‘How can we foster the development of physical literacy?

The content of this paper is a re-presentation of material from Chapters 5 and 15 in Whitehead (ed) (2010) and Chapter 4 in Capel and Whitehead (eds) (2013).