Table 5 Data sources for facilitators to implementation theme

Peer Influence

“It’s one of those where they get into groups and are like, right come on we’ll do this. With friends it helps.”

S1, F (100 MC).

“It’s a bit more fun because you’ve got your friends with you to do it.”

S2, F (DM).

“I’m doing the daily mile with my friend at twelve o’clock just before lunch. It is great fun and better to do with a friend than alone.”

S2, F (DM, Fig. 1).

Children run in small groups of 2–3, talking and laughing whilst they move.

S2 (DM).

Teacher Influence

“If I get involved with them they start to laugh at it because when I was getting it wrong or my teaching assistant was getting it wrong when we were doing it, it became comical because they’d teach me it.”

S2, M (ABs).

“If the teacher is like, “you can do it”, and then we say, “ok, you do it” and then he’s like actually I can do it and it’s a bit more encouraging.”

S2, F (DM).

“Me, *child’s name* and Mrs. *teacher’s name* doing the born to move. I feel happy.”

S3, F (BTM, Fig. 3).

Throughout the video the class teacher is involved doing all the moves, when a child tells her they have a stitch she encourages them to carry on moving.

S3 (BTM).

Staggered implementation

“Build it up gradually really, and sort of implement it a little bit at a time sort of thing.”

S1, F (General PA).

Incentives, rewards, challenges, and competition

“They quite like to choose their favourite video sometimes. So that is a bit of an incentive I use with them, that they can choose if they reach certain milestones.”

S1, F (BTM).

“I like the Daily Mile because I can challenge myself to not stop.”

S3, F (DM).

“Me and *child’s name* are doing the daily mile in school. I enjoy doing the daily because I get a challenge so I make a big effort.”

S3, M (DM, Fig. 4).

In the classroom after the mile run children are excited to complete their recording sheet. Teacher calls out names and children shout out how many miles they are up to, the teacher gives praise and their names are moved up the miles on the classroom wall display.

S1 (100 MC)

After the run children tell their teacher how many laps they have done. One child doubled the amount of laps completed compared to the previous day and gets a round of applause from the class and will be pupil of the day the next day.

S2 (DM).

“We do it to beat *child’s name* because she’s the fastest in the class. She beat a teacher in a competition.”

S2, M (DM).

“They go, “Right I’m going to try and do more than you”. So that positive competition was good for them.”

S2, M (DM).

“I feel proud because I could have said, “No I don’t want to do it” but I did and I’m getting more done and I’ve got an extra mile.”

S1, F (100 MC).

Flexibility and adaptability

“Sometimes if they’re keen, they’re on with their work, I don’t stop them, but sometimes when they get to a point and you can tell they’ve reached that point of “I need to do something different”, then we do it”.

S1, F (ABs).

“We put our own twists to the activities.”

S2, F (ABs).

‘Shake it off’ exercise is the last to be performed in a 5 min active break. The teacher has speakers and ‘Shake it off’ song by Taylor Swift ready to play. Children sing along and get a boost from the music to put greater effort in.

S2 (AB).

“They ended up loving head, shoulder, knees and toes, so we did that in several languages as we went through. Luckily my teaching assistant speaks multiple languages so that became comical.”

S2, M (ABs).

Child ownership

“Sometimes if we’re busy with a child, explaining a concept or something, some of the kids will just take the lead and they will let the whole group do it”.

S3, F (Bounce at the bell).

“When *child’s name* gets to pick which one, he’s super enthusiastic.”

S2, F (ABs).

Routine

“It became much easier, particularly with the mile a day. That was easy to be able to do. You know, quarter to twelve, twelve o’clock every day because that was just before lunch.”

S2, M (DM).

“You have English for an hour and you go out at twelve o’clock and just do it.”

S2, M (DM).

“I’m doing the daily mile with my friend at twelve o’clock just before lunch.”

S2, F (DM, Fig. 1).

Children start to get ready to go outside after a class test at 11.58 am, by 12 pm children are on the playground running their mile. Once the run has finished after 15 min, children eating hot food from the school kitchen go straight into the dinner hall, children with packed lunches go back to the class room to get their food. Children didn’t need direction or instructions after the run as to what to do next.

S2 (DM).

“In the end it became much easier because it just became routine to have three, four things happening during the day most days.”

S2, M (General PA).