Adherence rates (Additional file 
The percentage of people who returned diaries in the intervention group (equ 1) was 96% (30 out of 31). The percentage of weekly diaries returned in the intervention group (equ 2) was 77.6% (range 0–100%).The main cause of data loss was due to the non-return of the week 6 diary. Diaries for weeks 1–5 were returned to the treating therapist at the face-to-face intervention session. In contrast, the last diary sheet was returned after the last intervention session and was meant to be returned to the school’s administrator team when the participant attended the T6 appointment. Participants ticked a box to indicate if they had undertaken the prescribed exercises. The frequency of self-reported exercise was taken as a measure of compliance. Average percentage exercise compliance (equ 4) of the returned diaries was 83.37% (range 0.4–114.3%). Therapist notes indicated that the mobilisation protocol was adhered to in 100% of cases.