Document is current

Article History

Received: 21 March 2019

Accepted: 13 May 2019

First Online: 4 July 2019

Ethics approval and consent to participate

: The study has been approved by the Hunter New England Human Research Ethics Committee (Ref No. 11/03/16/4.05), University of Newcastle (Ref No. H-2011-0210), NSW Department of Education (SERAP 2011111), Maitland Newcastle Catholic School Diocese, Broken Bay Catholic School Diocese, Lismore Catholic School Diocese, Armidale Catholic School Diocese, and the Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council. To gain consent, a letter inviting schools will be emailed to all Principals, requesting the information be shared with the Head PE teacher. The Principal and/ or Head PE teacher will be contacted by telephone by a dedicated recruitment project officer with PE teacher training. A face-to-face or telephone meeting will be offered to outline the requirements of the study and confirm eligibility. Following school consent, all PE staff will be provided with a study information letter that outlines the purpose of the study and level of involvement expected. To gain consent from parents and students, a letter outlining the study and a student consent form will be sent home. The form will allow consent to be provided separately for participation in accelerometry, anthropometric measures, and student surveys. Parents will be provided with a telephone number to leave a message if they do not want to be prompted about consent or do not want their child to participate in study measurements. Parents who have not returned a consent form or left a message within two weeks will be telephoned by staff employed through the education sector who will explain the study and seek verbal consent using a standardised script.

: Not applicable.

: Authors RS, EC, NN, LW, KG, MW, NE, AB and JW receive salary support from their respective Local Health Districts. Hunter New England Local Health District contributes funding to the project outlined in this protocol. None of these agencies were involved in the peer review of this grant. RS and NN are Associate Editors for BMC Public Health. All other authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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