Table 3.

Pupil recruitment strategies

Recruitment strategy	Successful or unsuccessful	Decision regarding implementation in the main trial phase
Raising the profile of the BRIGHT trial within the school environment through local research teams presenting at assemblies	Successful	Continue in all schools
Maximising researchers’ presence in schools and being available to answer questions from pupils directly	Successful	Continue, with a commitment to researcher flexibility and multiple visits to schools if required
Continuing to recruit pupils during baseline data collection at the school, when pupils could hear feedback from participating peers	Successful	Continue
Working with school staff to smooth pathways for recruitment, e.g. school staff allowing time during class to complete consent forms	Successful	Continue
6.2.1. Provision of appropriate information to parents/carers where English was an additional language for them, where possible	Not required for schools in pilot	Provide if requested by schools in main trial
Informing pupils that they would receive a ‘Thank you’ voucher on completion of baseline data	Successful	Continue
Inviting a random selection of classes within large year groups to avoid over recruitment	Unsuccessful: Typically, the recruitment target was not met with this approach	Invite whole year groups at outset to make best use of resources and to decrease time taken to reach sample size. Random sampling of recruited pupils could be used if there was over recruitment
Informing pupils that they would be entered into a ‘Thank you’ prize draw (where they could win an additional £100 in vouchers) on completion of baseline data	Unsuccessful: LRTs fed back that this appeared not to be appreciated by potential participants	Not to be used