KEEPING children active is imperative for the sake of their long-term health.

Educating youngsters about the importance of leading a healthy lifestyle from a young age will help to set them up for life and, hopefully, prevent against childhood obesity, an issue the BiB (Born in Bradford) study is helping to tackle.

Since its launch a decade ago, Bib, one of the biggest and most important medical research studies undertaken in the UK, is seeking answers to questions about the city's health by tracking the lives of nearly 14,000 babies and their families across the Bradford district.

Developing a simple mobile phone app to help parents and health professionals monitor children's weight to improve detection of childhood obesity by health visitors is one initiative. The study is also looking at ways of effectively supporting mothers during pregnancy and after their baby's birth to eat more healthily and to exercise.

But perhaps one of the most unusual initiatives is the trialling of 'standing desks' to encourage exercise in children in schools.

It is understood children at Grove House Primary School are the first in the country to test out the new custom-made desks which could lead to them being more active.

The specialist child-size, ergonomic sit-to-stand desks have arrived at the school courtesy of Born in Bradford (BiB).

Researchers from BiB and Loughborough University have been working with the school since 2014 on the 'Stand out in Class' study to find out how best to combat sedentary behaviour (prolonged sitting) in primary schools and to encourage children to become more active.

In the first part of the study, last year, six adult-size desks were brought into the Year 5 class for pupils aged nine and 10 to try out.

But now, for the second phase of the research, a classroom full of standard desks has been replaced by specially-made, child-size versions which will be trialled by up to 30 pupils. The desks have been created by Ergotron.

BiB's lead researcher, Dr Sally Barber said: "Our first study suggested it may not be necessary to replace all standard desks but then we were using adult-sized desks and only had a bank of six. Now we have a whole class using desks which have been specially made for their size so we want to compare our findings."

The first findings showed that pupils sat for just under 10 hours a day, which is equivalent to 70 per cent of their total waking hours.

"We know that sitting down for prolonged periods is bad for your health, but in the classroom and the workplace this has become the norm," added Dr Barber.

"An urgent cultural shift is needed, and we feel that the only way to do this is to target this generation, particularly while they are still at school. If we can bring about a behaviour change, learnt from a young age, then this should continue into adulthood and improve people's overall quality and health."

Byron Primary School, Barkerend Road, Bradford, has kindly agreed to act as the "control" school for the study. This means that BiB researchers have weighed and measured the Byron pupils and given them activity monitors to wear but they will continue to use the standard school desks. At the end of the study, results will then be compared between the two schools.

Richard O'Sullivan, headteacher at Bryon Primary, says: "We are always looking into ways of helping children full-stop. Whether it is about developing their fitness or helping them learn. I was aware of the project at Grove House so the opportunity to become involved was presented to us and it is a very worthwhile thing to find out about."

Mr O'Sullivan believes it will also bring great benefits for the children. "There are lots of ways it benefits the children. The fact they are taking part in something is really important. They realise they are also helping people to learn and find out beyond school, but also the fact that it is making them aware of their own health, how active they are, how are they moving around, all that sort of thing because they have to monitor that as part of it, getting them to reflect on their fitness and health levels."

It is expected it will be at least a year before the research can be analysed. Initial findings have been published in the Journal of Public Health and are also available on the BiB website borninbradford.nhs.uk.

The Bradford collaborators on this project are funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).