We’re are you popular at school?

I wasn’t in the trendy group but somewhere in the middle. I always had a ‘group’ I was part of. I was horribly shy in those days and I feel annoyed with myself, thinking back. Things at home were difficult because my mum had a mental illness which inhibited me and meant I didn’t ask many people home. For me it was very liberating to leave home forever at 18, I changed my whole personality and gained a lot of confidence. Had a ball at teacher’s training college, loved every minute of it.

Sara1954 Yes, it was horrible and humiliating and gave the "in-crowd" even more ammunition to fire at me.

I wasn't particularly popular at school. I had friends in different groups but I wasn't in the popular girl group as such. I was fairly miserable as a teenager but what saved me was joining a youth drama group and making good friends from other schools.

No not one of the “popular” girls. Just in my little group of best friends.

The popular girls tended to be attractive, adapting their school uniform to a more modern look and hair styles to suit. They also appeared to be popular with boys outside of school.

I guess it was what the rest of us hoped for but didn’t achieve until we were older?

Our teachers were cruel too in infants/juniors. What sort of person would stand a terrified five year old (me) on a box in front of the class because I was so scared I wet my pants, and say to the class 'Look what this dirty little girl has done'. And so it went on.....

No. I was always the odd one out. Still am.

Kate
I can hardly believe a person in charge of small children could be so cruel. Poor little you, that must have been horrible.
Interesting that we were all picked last for the netball team, wonder if any of us were ever picked first.

I can't believe it! at last I'm in a group lol, I always felt I wasn't popular at school although I have bumped into
people from school and they always remember me, I was very lonely and lacked confidence, I couldn't wait to leave and life has always been easier for me since leaving

No I wasn't. Think it was because I was 6ft even at 14.
Always with the odd ones rather than the popular girls.
Still find it hard to fit in.

I seem to remember we all took something called an Intelligence Test before being put forward for the 11+ which wasn’t compulsory. I passed much to my surprise and went to the first co-ed grammar in my area. I wasn’t popular but not unpopular either and loved my time at school.

I was not popular at school, initially. I found out a few years ago from one of my brothers, that i had passed my 11+ but was never told as there was no money for the extras i would need to go to grammer school. I remember being sent to the local comprehensive school, which was awful for quiet timid girls like myself, Two of my older brothers however were able to go to grammer school(I am one of ten children). My parents were feckless and happiest at the pub, we more or less looked after ourselves. On reflection it would have been awful to have gone to grammer school, we never had decent clothes, i would have stood out like a sore thumb., even though i think i would have been bright enough to cope.
I think there are lots of women like myself, who have lost out on things because of our upbringing. I can understand the povery we experienced because of how many of us there were, but parents were at the pub most of the time. I cannot forgive my mother for letting me go out into the world to face humiliation, pity and being ignored as the scruffy kid from that household. She could have made sure we were clean, fed and at least up to a standard of our peers.
I know i am not alone in an upbringing like this.
I remember being unable to understand some of the maths formulas in class, asking the teacher, being told i should have grasped it by now, so slinking back to my seat feeling totally inadequate.
However, i did become popular in my last year at school, as i was very quick witted and amusing. Some people became friends, but never kept in contact at all.
Aint life hard for a lot of folks?

Never picked for sports, but didn't mind that. Regarded as uninspiring, but what did they know? Stood for election as head of house and was asked to withdraw as I didn't stand a chance. Wouldn't stand down as was mocked for stupidity. Won the election. Supported the underdog ever since.

Being 'odd' can certainly get you picked on in life as well as at school! We all have a bit of a herd instinct which is why fashion survives as most people want to look like their peers! I was definitely odd at my all girls' boarding school. I was tall, wore glasses, my parents were divorced and I lived with my father - almost unheard of in the 50s. However I found that I could make people laugh and it was a very unsporty school so not being picked for any team was considered a bit of a triumph! Hated school with all the petty rules, but was quite popular with the girls - not the staff!!! Was expelled in the end for disobedience. Since then life has been pretty peachy. My GC seem to love school and get glowing reports - can't think where they get that from!

Oh yes Sara They were very cruel. The nuns were as bad.

I think this is a really interesting thread! So many have said they def weren’t popular at their school and I have to say, this does make me feel a little better about my own schooldays. I went to an all-girls grammar and I wasn’t in with the in-crowd at all and had very few friends. I’m sure it was because I was probably boring and also slightly weird, or just, you know, what the younger people today say…. “Meh”!!
At a school reunion about fifteen years later, I was voted “girl most changed” haha….. I went into a very gregarious type of job and made many friends for life and just came out of myself, basically.
When I had children, I desperately wanted THEM to be popular. My son was in a niche small group and also met his lifetime partner there when he was 14. My daughter, I was thrilled to find, was very popular and always in the “in” group. I was so happy for her as she’s a really nice person, very interesting and very kind. She’s somehow got a finger on the pulse with current trends - a skill she’s always had - so I think that possibly also helped. But due to my experience, I told her there would be girls on the periphery, always looking in but that would probably never make it to the popular group and to therefore always look out for them and be kind, and to try and include where possible.
If my one or two friends were off school for any reason, I just remember wandering around on my own at break times, feeling a bit embarrassed about it, but I don’t think anyone particularly noticed!

Can't say that I was as I tended to keep my head down and just have a small circle of friends - some of which I am still in contact with now!
The same year that my marriage broke up and I returned home, I was persuaded to attend the school reunion with my older brother (we went to the same grammer school) and had what I can only describe as one of the worst evenings of my life!
I finally caught up with the girl that had been my best friend at school but it was really upsetting that very few other people remembered me!
Not what I needed after feeling totally flattened by my marriage breakdown!

I've told this story before, so apologise for repeating it. Imagine taking a 7 year old out of class (me) with no explanation, putting them in the back of a van alone. The van stopping, being taken out, still with no one speaking, marched through what I now realise was a delousing centre, having your head deloused, taken back to the van, then the class with nothing said. I was never going to be popular. My confidence was shot from an early age.

Not sure I was popular, but definitely a ringleader if any pranks were planned! I was terrible at sport and so was always picked last for teams. Except for swimming,
at which I excelled, because my small stature didn't matter as much and my poor eyesight (lack of stereoscopic vision) was less of a handicap. The sporty girls (netball and hockey etc.) were quite cliquey. It was an all girls state grammar school and still is. But I did enjoy my time there and am still in touch with around a third of my year group, more than 50 years on! We had a school centenary reunion in 2019 and it was lovely! There were some girls there with whom I had never been particularly friendly, but I was struck by how lovely they had all become as mature adults. I think I am less judgmental now and look for the good in people. I often wish I could go back to school but with the life experience I have now. I would be a much better student! I did get to university, the first of my family to do so and still quite a rare thing in 1976. Going to university was more a result of influences at school than at home, so I am grateful. My mum and dad were supportive in the end but initially did not want me to go! In later life, my late father acknowledged that it had been a good decision. But I had to fight to be allowed to go, because my father thought that higher education would be wasted on a girl who was only going to get married and have children! Unlike my daughter, I did have a long break from working (as a teacher) to be a stay at home mum, which I have never regretted. Sadly, this is a luxury few can afford now.

I was never popular. Bullied a lot in junior school although there were a few friends - mainly others who weren't popular. Secondary school was no better. I was plain, bad at sports and generally unlovable, so it was understandable

I was so quiet at school that I don't think they ever knew I was there. I didn't have many friends as I only started the school in S4 and left in S6.

After being quite popular at primary school, it was different when I passed an entrance exam for a "posh" school. From then my life divided between school - where I kept myself to myself and never gave any clue as to what home was like. Sports/PE was not a problem after I absented myself from them when teacher was rude about my shorts being unpressed. Not a big deal except it hit a raw nerve because home was hard in comparison with those of other pupils with alcoholic dad, depressed mum, small siblings and no money for electricity hence unpressed shorts. So small group of "nearly friends". To be honest I felt a bit of contempt for the "in group" who seemed to have butterfly minds.

No always the deviant and still am today. Never bothered by others opinions of me. That’s their business not mine.

I had friends at school but I wouldn’t say I was popular I just mingled in the background I suppose
I’m pretty much the same now I have a couple of close friends but I wouldn’t say I’m popular now, I don’t really know what I do wrong I’m friendly to people I meet but there goes hay ho

I went to a Girls Convent School and was neither popular nor unpopular. I had my friends we were three of us, but nobody bothered with us much.It was so different when I went to Nurse Training School it broadened my horison.

Hated school, at 9 I went to a different school, in town rather than our estate and was bullied from day 1. This continued when I went to secondary school too, and I left in desperation at 16. I later gained 3 degrees and taught in college and the local prison, wish I'd been able to do it when I was young though