Recruiting schools, adolescents and parents to a sexual-health trial: experiences, challenges and lessons learned from the Jack Trial

Background
Recruitment to school-based randomised trials is challenging; even more so when the focus of the study is a sensitive issue such as sexual health. The Jack Feasibility Trial aims to determine the facilitators and barriers to recruitment and retention to a school-based sexual health trial and identify optimal multi-level strategies for a full trial.
Method
The Jack Trial is an NIHR-funded feasibility study of a film-based sexual health intervention, recruiting over 800 adolescents from 8 post-primary schools in Northern Ireland. In order to examine the feasibility of piloted recruitment and retention methods and assess acceptability of participation across the range of schools and individuals approached, we analysed qualitative data from triangulated sources including a parents’ survey and semi-structured interviews with principals, vice-principals, teachers and parents recruited to the study.
Results
With reference to Social Learning Theory, we identified a number of individual, behavioural and environmental level factors which influenced recruitment and retention. Commonly identified facilitators included the perceived relevance and potential benefit of the intervention to adolescents, the credibility of the organisation running the study, support offered by trial staff, and financial incentives. Key barriers were prior commitment to other research, lack of time and resources, and perceptions that the intervention was incompatible with adolescent needs or school ethos.
Conclusion
This study highlights pertinent general and trial-specific facilitators and barriers to recruitment to a sexual health trial in a school setting, which will prove useful for successful conduct of future trials with schools, adolescents and parents.

A Pilot Study of Reciprocal Peer Tutoring in Irish Medium Schools

A pilot study to investigate the effects of mathematics peer tutoring in Irish medium primary schools was undertaken. Five schools and 90 students took part in the pilot. Materials and resources that had previously been shown to work in English medium Scottish schools were translated into Irish by CCEA. Irish medium teachers attended three professional development days. Teachers implemented the peer tutoring techniques during mathematics lessons during a period of 16 weeks. Changes in attainment were measures with an Irish translation of the Scottish Survey of Achievement Mathematics Test. Results were positive. Student attainment was significantly raised during the 16-week implementation period by over one standard deviation. This equated to one-year’s worth of mathematics development during this time period. Results must be treated with caution. No control group was used in the pilot study. However, results are very promising and indicate that reciprocal role peer tutoring may be a useful pedagogy in Irish medium education. Further work would be required to establish this definitively.