Table 3 Selection of the most illustrative verbatim of participants to the focus groups (n = 3 focus groups, 14 participants)

Knowledge about HPV infections

 Poorly informed

“We lack a lot of information and even more on boys but also on girls in general” (P14, nurse)

 A female problem

“Yes, we need to have figures on the risks for boys who do not get vaccinated, I learned it from my gynaecologist who said that it caused oral cancers in boys, well, it's true that I didn't know” (P14, nurse)

 Sources of information

“I follow the news very regularly […] that's how I heard about the papillomavirus” (P5, teacher)

Knowledge, beliefs and attitudes towards HPV vaccination

 Vaccination schedule

“But once he had his first intercourse, it was no longer effective, well, maybe I'm wrong, that's what I understood” (P4, support staff)

 Vaccination for boys

“And why vaccinate boys, what is the point of vaccinating boys? […] we say at the beginning 10 years ago it was girls, now we say boys […] what has changed now it would be boys?… it's unclear” (P11, nurse)

 Vaccine efficacy / safety

“Because there are so many papillomaviruses and this vaccine concerns only one kind of papillomavirus so is it useful?” (P11, nurse)

“I'm afraid that it [the HPV vaccine] will lead to something else because we don't have enough hindsight” (P9, teacher)

Antecedents of vaccination in general

 Collective Responsibility

“Yes it’s a public health problem […] I don't know if this vaccination would really eradicate the virus completely if we were all vaccinated […] but in any case it would greatly reduce the number of cancer risks for both girls and boys” (P14, nurse)

 Confidence

“We have already seen vaccines that have, heu, caused, heu, multiple sclerosis [referring to the hepatitis B vaccination]” (P3, support staff)

 Target population

“Ha bah papillomavirus equals sexuality in everyone's head euh that's it and inevitably ask a little boy/girl who's entering 6th grade, well, let's think about your sexuality, well, it's taboo for many families, right? I'm not sure if we in the 6th grade can talk about this it's complicated” (P11, nurse)

Schools’ role in promoting HPV vaccination

 Informing/educating pupils

A positive attitude among nurses and some teachers/support staff

"Even as part of our teaching, I think it could be interesting […] Ah I think of the sciences, in particular… yes life sciences […] even an external worker euh I think that it could be interesting " (P6, support staff)

"It's fully within our job, we're not here for minor medical care essentially we're also here for information and prevention” (P13, nurse)

But some reluctance among teachers/support staff

"Well, the school is not necessarily the place to get information about vaccinations […] I think we already do quite a lot” (P1, teacher)

 Offering access to HPV vaccination

"I don't think it's the school’s role […] I think it's the role of the family’s health professionals” (P4, support staff)

"Be careful, the school is not a place of care so euh vaccinate, we are alone that is to say that there is no doctor…” (P11, nurse)

"I would tend to say that this is not the place and that our country allows us to be vaccinated, I mean we have other places” (P14, nurse)