Were you popular and sporty in school?

I was sporty but not a pretty child so I was picked for teams but not in a group of friends. I was teased mercilessly at school about my nose which was 'Roman' and not attractive so much so that at 21 I paid for a nose job. Nobody remembers me from school and it was the most miserable time of my life. After I had the surgery I blossomed into an attractive outgoing person but deep down all through my life I have not been confident and I think it was all due to the bullying I received at school. Bullying however slight leaves a lasting impression and can ruin lives.

No and not particularly, from me. Totally unsporty, pudgy and flat-footed. I did have my group of friends and a particularly close bestie but there was another group of girls (I was at a wonderful co-ed grammar, adored it) that I went out of my way to avoid, didn't want them to notice me at all. Their leader was so confident and outgoing, she frightened the life out of me. Oddly, after meeting up at a school reunion some years ago and finding that we got on amazingly well, she's become one of my dearest friends!

NO & NO! Hated school think I'd have definitely benefited at one of those outdoor schools!!

I would have loved to be sporty but I wasn't very good at games and I was always the last to be picked for teams (the humiliation is still with me!) On the other hand I was very, very academic, particularly at maths and sciences (still am) which made me deeply unpopular. At 12 I started going off the rails - to make myself more popular - and I can't say I ever really got back on; despite having a degree and a reasonable profession I always feel I have underachieved mightily. Looking back, those girls who were - not exactly mean, but exclusionary - might have put back cheap, clean, and controlled nuclear fusion by 30 years. But then again, probably not!

I enjoyed sport and was good at it, particularly gymnastics and running, but haven't a competitive bone in my body so never tried out for house or school teams. I wasn't one of the popular set.

My parents had a weird idea about TV channels back then. They/we watched ITV and rarely or never watched BBC. I think it was a mistaken idea of a social class thing. Watching BBC was posh! Consequently, Top of the Pops, The Man from Uncle and The Forsyte Saga were all off limits to my sisters and me but were all endlessly discussed at breaktimes in school. I did feel a little disadvantaged but, hey ho, it was character building... ?

Not popular. Virtually invisible I think. This made me look out for invisible children when I became a primary school teacher.

I was sporty at primary school because we had a wonderfully inspiring teacher who let us do all sorts of stuff in the PE hall that we probably wouldn't be allowed to do now.

I was in the school swimming team simply because I was the only person who could get from one end of a pool doing butterfly with dolphin legs. Never won a race, just had a go each time.

Loved sports and academic subjects, but before you hurl a bucket of fish heads over me I hated being at home ? Sports allowed me to put off the time I had to leave school. Invariably a lone soul on the sports fields trying to raise my personal best, all the while with a sinking feeling about what I'd find behind the front door. Similarly being able to leave and go to university was a great motivator. Moving into halls on the first day I heard everyone else moaning about the tiny space and 2'6" bed
Me, I was delighted to have my own door that I could lock and be in charge of myself.

I was terrible at PE and sports of any kind, and absolutely loathed it all. I skived out of it as much as possible.

I also hated domestic science (though I have always enjoyed cooking as an adult.) Maths was a weak subject too but I didn't hate it. I was good at French (though shy about speaking) and history and always top in English. I wasn't popular.

I missed a lot of school due to illness and that didn't help. I left at 15, after being so ill that I had missed nearly a whole year, though the teachers had expected me to go to university. I went to work and never, for a moment, wished I was back at school. I still dream about that sometimes and wake up horrified!

I was a fast runner so I quite liked athletics but I couldn’t be bothered with sport really except I didn’t mind tennis. I wasn’t a conformist but I always had a group of friends. I didn’t ever suck up to teachers and had a bit of an authority problem, looking back. Couldn’t stand snobby girls or people putting on airs and graces. Nothing much changes …

I was reasonably popular at school, although for health reasons I was not allowed to do outdoor sports in the winter term.

I was fairly good at gym and loved dancing, but when I changed schools aged 12 my new school did not do Scottish country dancing as part of gym lessons, so no dancing.

I was good at languages, history, sewing, music, arithmetic, but hopeless at maths, which I never could see the point of - why on earth should you ever need to battle with (a+b) - c etc.? Or calculate the angles in a triangle? You can simply measure them for heaven's sake.

I probably would have been a prefect, if I hadn't left school before the 6th form, as I was a bossy boots. What a hideously old-fashioned idea putting the oldest pupils in charge of monitering break etc. this should be part of the teachers' job.

Our prefects were little dictators, and how they loved it!

What an interesting post. I went to boarding school and did not achieve or enjoy anything particularly academic. I did enjoy PE and athletics though. I did make some good friends and my best friend at school is still one of my best friends now, not bad considering we have been friend for 57 years!

I have mixed memories of school. Much of it was good but cookery, art, needlework and sports I loathed as I considered them, rightly or wrongly a total waste of time! The silly PE teacher would not permit those short sighted children like me to wear our glasses whilst playing outdoor games. If you have ever tried to spot a hockey or tennis ball when you can barely make out the face of the person next to you then you will know it makes for a lousy experience. Can’t believe they were so stupid! I liked swimming despite my handicap but it was never picked up on. I was a keen rider from the age of three until my teenage years until studying took over. Certainly I was put off sport for life through the ignorant and unimaginative way of going about things by poor PE teachers! I was ridiculed a bit by those sporty girls but knew my misery would end in the classroom. I was very academic, easily the top of the class and the only one of my year to gain entrance to a blue brick university. So I have never let it bother me! Rather lazy now, but luckily I have a fast metabolism or something so have never been forced to shift my carcass for vanity reasons which is possibly the only thing which would have forced me to actually move faster than a jog! Apart from walking which I love and playing football with my (non critical!) young grandson I am afraid I still avoid, avoid!

No and no. I wanted to play sports but had no idea of the rules etc. my primary school had had no sports provision. I soon became the girl last to be chosen or left on the sidelines. PE/sports became just another opportunity for the bullies who plagued me throughout high school.

Yes, very sporty. Long distance running, hurdling, hockey, swimming. Paying for it now though with my knees!!

Academically, I was average. In the top stream, but middle of the class. Went into nursing until I had my children, and then it was in unpaid work for the next 25 years!

Still swim and cycle.

None of the senior girls at school was sporty and all disliked hockey to some degree. Each of us was popular in some way or other. I was not aware that anyone gave a moment's consideration to whether or not she was popular.

It would worry me if popularity was considered a virtue at any school.

I wasn't one of the popular girls, but I was sporty. I loved hockey and athletics. I represented my school in high jump and 400m hurdles.
I went to a secondary modern school, so the emphasis wasn't so much on academic work, but on preparing us for the working world.
I did enough to get by. My learning all came after I left school.
I entered nurse training at our local psychiatric hospital and from a class of 13 was one of only 5 who qualified.

I was middle of the road, quite good at netball and tennis but mum never thought she would be in the players box at Wimbledon!
I was reasonably popular I think, I had lots of friends anyway but I can’t remember really thinking about it.
There is a difference between being academically excellent and being sporty. Being rubbish at sport can be a very public humiliation. Not getting to grips with maths equations is a little more private.

Not top of the class in English though, eh biglouis? I suspect you weren’t chosen as a prefect because you weren’t seen as a role model. Popularity isn’t something to be disparaged - if someone is popular they can influence for good (as well as evil!). I was middle of the road, which is just fine. It’s a bit odd that you hated that the most sporty girls were team captains - what else would you expect?!

Most definitely not.,I was good at Netball, that’s it. I was deputy head girl but never knew why. Happiest day was when I left school, could make my own choices. Didn’t ever feel a part of the in crowd, even now I prefer person to person and few close friends that I’ve had for ever. You wouldn’t see me at a hen party. I seem confident but in fact I’m not.

I was never sporty, always last to be chosen for a team and horribly bullied at senior school.
I had absolutely no chance of being a prefect, let alone head girl, because I wasn’t Roman Catholic. It was a very strict Catholic school and the fee-paying ‘non-Catholics’ were second class citizens, to be pitied and hopefully converted ☹️

I was definitely never sporty, a wee fat blob. Although one term the class voted me the Gym Prefect, just to annoy the games mistress. I thought it was funny too.

I was always ìn the "someone's got to have her" group for team games but as I had not the smallest interest or ambition in sport worried me not at all,

I had a little group of friends, and I assume I was popular, it never occurred to me that I wasn't.

No and No from me too, I hated sports at school and I was rubbish at them all,to make things worse my sister was clever at most subjects and I was ALWAYS compared to her in every subject,she was however not a friendly person and I had plenty of mates and spent my school days talking -too much according to my teachers.Also my best mate at school was the prettiest girl who all the boys fancied and all the other girls wanted to be like, but she was my mate and we're still friends now.she was pretty ,clever and sporty ,I was her plain side kick I think.
Mind you I’ve done well for myself ,happy marriage, healthy happy family and a good professional role so I agree being sporty is not all it’s cracked up to be

I loved being educated and learning, but didn't like the school I was at. Fairly early on one or two of the teachers took against me. I had terrible writing - still do have, but dyspraxia wasn't known about then, so the causes were not understood and I was consistently given low marks because of my writing and dismissed as lazy and not very bright.

I decided that I knew what I was capable of and I just set my target as getting plenty of O'levels. Nobody noticed that I always did far better in exams than in normal school work, so I just hunkered down, took the slings and fortunes of school life in my stride.

O' levels came, lots of teachers were downplaying my chances, but I knew what I was capable of and I passed every O level I sat, most of them quite well. One teacher was so angry about this, especially as I had a good pass in the subject she taught, that she refuse to even acknowledge my existence.

All of sudden I was the golden girl. I applied for university, everyone was convinced I would be studying for a history degree. I just kept quiet, until in the last summer term, I told my teachers that I wasn't going to study history, I was going to study economics. No one had ever done that before, it caused real consternation, but by then I was nearly through with school, so I didn't give a damn.

I was quiet and slightly frail at grammar school. I had been very ill and was not supposed to do sports, but the P.E. teacher ignored that. Hated athletics and gym. I liked art best and went on to do that with absolutely no encouragement from the art teacher .

Yes and yes - still I wasn't good at long-distance running, more of a sprinter. We can't all be good at everything. Still, I found it all too easy, while others struggled.

I'd often get into trouble for chatting in class - due to pure boredom. Mostly, school just held me back and wasted my time. I wasn't challenged, so still a 'misfit'.

One theory of education is that school just prepares you for the mind-numbing boredom of work!