School-based interventions to improve the lunchbox contents and physical activity levels of children.

To increase the efficiency of two separate interventions, a randomised factorial design will be utilised, that sees schools randomly allocated and provided with either; i) a lunchbox only intervention; ii) a physical activity only intervention; iii) a combined lunchbox/ physical activity intervention or iv) control. A brief description of the interventions are described below; Lunchbox intervention (Group 1) The lunchbox intervention aims to improve the contents of children’s lunchboxes by supporting parents/carers to swap what is packed from non-core foods and drinks to core foods and drinks. The intervention seeks to address the barriers faced by parents to packing a healthy lunchbox (time/convenience, cost, child preference, food safety and knowledge). The 10 week intervention will utilise an existing school mobile application to communicate lunchbox messages to parents/carers along with the dissemination of physical tools and resource to address barriers and support change. Due to school holidays, the intervention will not begin until the start of Term 1 2017. The intervention will include the following: Information to parents – Using the existing mobile communication application 10 x short messages to parents (one per week) will be “pushed” to parents. These messages will address the identified barriers to packing a healthy lunchbox. Content includes a the key message of the week for example “budget friendly lunchbox ideas”, relevant picture, a 50 word message, a link to a video (only in selected pushes), link to the project website (http://www.goodforkids.nsw.gov.au/), an email address to request further information and the opportunity to share the push notification via Facebook and Instagram. Resources- children at each school will receive the following resources which are aimed to facilitate the packing of healthy lunchboxes: an ice brick, a water bottle, a shopping list, a shopping bag, a magnetised parent resource booklet and lunchbox stickers. Static Display- schools will be asked to display 10 x pictorial posters (one per week) in school offices displaying a healthy lunchbox which include tips to address the known barriers. Physical activity intervention (Group 2) The physical activity intervention is a 3 term intervention (approx. 9 month) and aims to assess the effectiveness of implementation of a mandatory NSW Department of Education physical activity policy (Sport and Physical Activity Policy) on student’s physical activity levels. The policy requires that students from Kindergarten to Year 10 participate in a minimum of 150 minutes of planned moderate with some vigorous physical activity across the school week. Planned physical activity includes time spent in PE, sport and other structured activities that is inclusive of all children and is part of their regular programming and planning. To support schools implementation of this policy they will be offered; 1. 1 x day (5hrs) face to face training delivered by trained PE teachers for primary school stage coordinators to help with the scheduling of PE, sport and other physical activity; 2. 1 x 2hr face to face professional development for all teachers to increase the quality and activity of PE and sport; 3. Resources including example schedules that meet the 150minute policy, manuals that support the teaching of PE and pedometers for teachers to use with students to increase activity in PE and sport; 4. On-going support via telephone and email with trained PE teachers to support the implementation of the policy. If schools in Group 1 or Control are meeting the policy this will be captured during baseline data collection. They will be advised to continue on with usual practice. Schools in the combined lunchbox/physical activity intervention (Group 3) will receive both interventions concurrently for the first ten weeks, and then the physical activity intervention for the remainder of the 9 months. Schools will be randomly observed by project staff throughout the intervention period which will allow intervention strategies to be monitored i.e. lunchbox static displays and delivery of the NSW PA policy.