Table 1 Description, descriptive characteristics, and differences between primary and secondary schools for school questionnaire-based data collected

Length of break (minutes per day)

Morning break, lunch break (and any other breaks, e.g., pm) duration added to obtain total break time.

75.21 (8.28)

65.70 (10.67)

.000**

Number of sports facilities

(medium/high quality)

Reported access to nine sport related facilities (e.g., gym, swimming pool etc.). Those rated as high or radium quality were summed.

5.30 (1.30)

6.35 (1.09)

.027*

Hours of PE (per week)

Reported and rounded to the nearest ½ hour.

2.09 (.36)

2.24 (.412)

.241

Physical activity policy (% yes)

“Does your school have a policy to promote physical activity” (written or informal)

84.8

79.1

.464

Lunchtime extra-curricular physical activity provision (% yes)

“Does your school provide any extracurricular physical activity during lunch breaks?”

62

88.1

.005*

School attitude (to physical activity promotion)

Reported agreement with five statements about school attitude to physical activity (5-point Likert scale). Scores were summed and averaged.

4.44 (.92)

4.39 (.69)

.749

Compulsory outdoor break, if weather allows it (% yes)

Choosing one of five options reflecting outdoor policy during break times. The answers were collapsed into a dichotomous category.

96.7

27.9

.000**

Activity rules during breaks:

Report of whether children are allowed to do screen-based activity (e.g., watch TV or use computers) regardless of weather.

8.7

74.4

.000**

- Screen-based activity allowed (% yes)

-Physically-active activities allowed (% ≥ 2)

Report of whether children are allowed to do physically active activities (e.g., use sports equipment, play ball games, play running games etc.) regardless of the weather

52.2

65

.194

School Environment (physical environment)

Reported agreement with seven statements about the area around the school (5-point Likert scale). Scores were summed (possible score 0–35)

22.01 (3.96)

24.91 (3.34)

.001*