A letter was sent to the Principal of each eligible school with details of the research proposal. The principal was asked to respond by post (SAE provided), telephone, or email if interested in participating. A follow-up telephone call was made
to any school that failed to respond within two weeks. Parental and student information and consent forms were then posted to the schools for distribution by the Principal. Each school was contacted to arrange the school visits. Each school was visited on four occasions. The first two were used for the collection of consent forms, and to allow the students to become accustomed to the researcher’s presence in the computer room. The second two sessions were used for data collection.