Existing guidance provided by the Scottish Executive Education Department and Learning and Teaching Scotland to education authorities and schools already emphasise the benefits to pupils' health and general well-being of providing a balanced and varied programme of sport and other forms of physical education within the school curriculum.Sportscotland works closely with education authorities in a number of programmes, targeted at primary and secondary schools, which aim to promote and increase the level and range of sporting and physical activity of school-aged children during and after school hours.The need to encourage positive healthy lifestyles, which would include sporting activity, is highlighted in the Scottish drug strategy, and in a range of initiatives designed to encourage positive school ethos and health promoting schools.