Exclusion criteria

We excluded guidelines published before 1990, the year the National Curriculum was introduced in Great Britain²⁰ to ensure that guidelines were relevant within the current school environment. An English language restriction was applied. Exclusions included guidelines focusing on safeguarding as these were outside the scope of the review and older versions of current guidelines in order to avoid duplication of findings. In addition, guidelines specifically written to optimise clinical care pathways were excluded as these are not applicable within schools. Guidelines focusing on only one sport, such as the ‘Headcase’ resources from Rugby England,²¹ were also outside the scope of the review as we focused on guidelines for school sports generally.