We’re are you popular at school?

I was quite shy and didn't like to be noticed, but I did have quite a tight group of friends of both sexes and my teachers liked me well enough. I envied - and was terrified of - a particular girl who was part of the really cool gang, and always took care to keep out of her way.

Amazingly, at a school reunion 20 years ago we discovered we really liked each other and she's now one of my closest friends!

I was never a popular choice to be in any sports team until those choosing realised that, as a left-hander, I was a good option in terms of increasing their score in rounders and cricket, by default, through the number of no-balls! Plus, I whacked the ball in a completely different direction from the right-handers and the fielders often got caught out!

It's OK silver thank you. I survived it! I had a nice little group of friends fortunately.

Definitely not popular! I was small, shy and had a stammer and was very much the shrinking violet. I was no good at sport, so put extra effort into my schoolwork, so probably seen as a swot. Had one or two friends, but not really close to anyone.

DS, on the other hand, had no problems and was voted house captain at school in Australia. Both DC made friends easily, unlike me, which I was thankful for.

Oh Kate, that’s horrible. Why are some children so cruel ?

Popular at Primary School and loved my time there. Things changed at my very academic secondary school where I realised very quickly that being "clever" in Primary didn't equate to the sort of brains I was competing with there. I was also very small and immature and I shrank into myself. Wasn't happy there. Things changed for the better at college where I was mature enough to make good friends with people I liked rather than trying to be in the "in" crowd ! I was also considered to be witty which did wonders for my ego. I still keep in touch with some of my college friends today.

Popular? Ha ha. I was bullied, laughed at and left out of everything.

nah bluebelle it's not all good
ive still got a scar on my hand where one girl stabbed me with a biro

artaylars last sentence about school in the 70s being brutal got me thinking
surely it is worse now in 21st century with social media and so called friends liking comments and pictures
i bet it is far nastier and more sinister

Loved junior school but hated grammar school. I don’t remember feeling left out at any time. I had a group of friends and a few I didn’t particularly like, expect the feeling was mutual.
Same in adulthood at work and various clubs.

Reasonably I think, I was a bit ‘wayward’, didn’t respond well to uniform and quite familiar with detentions, I have a physical scar from when a dare went wrong. I got picked for netball as I’m tall, goal defence, but I yearned to be a shooter. I also lived quite far away, two buses (all girls grammar school).

I was very popular at school, especially with the more mature boys. I know that sounds great {and big headed!} BUT it was because I was the ugly friend to girls they wanted to date. I was frequently told how easy I was to talk to....well "I can't speak to girls, but I can speak to you" was usually how it was put. lol Basically they considered me one of the boys. This, plus always being picked last for sports and being bullied {fat and ginger}led to a massive insecurity complex. Even just typing this brings back the sadness.

Blimey you get better and better lillie ?
I was somewhere in the middle, reasonable popular within my own friend circle but never had any bullying or nastiness outside of it I was never amongst the first to be picked but neither was I the last I was only average at sport so the sporty ones were always clamoured for first, I think it’s a horrible cliquey idea anyway, why didn’t the teacher pick sides
I was a fairly good kid didn’t get into trouble or do naughty things I think I was little miss average (I did rise to a prefect though) and still meet up with 14/15 school friends monthly so I couldn’t have been too bad

I loved going to school

I wouldn’t have won any popularity contests with the girls at Secondary school, but was always happy to be on the edge of groups rather than centre stage.
I seemed to do better with the boys and they liked me more. Maybe it was because I had 5 brothers and was at ease with the boys.

I was pretty shy, particularly in my early teens so wouldnt say that I was popular.

I did have a small group of friends who seemed to like me very much though.

I'm still in regular contact with one of them now.

One thing do remember from secondary school in the 1970s is that it could be very brutal indeed, particularly for kids who were 'different' in any way.

I was not popular, being one of only two mixed race pupils in an otherwise all white girls' grammar school, when I joined. It may have been down to my skin colour, or possibly the fact that I was quiet by nature. My sister was more popular than I was, and played hockey in the school team. Sport wasn't my thing at all.

I did have a group of friends, though. There were six of us but I've lost touch with all of them now.

At junior school, I was in the middle (20th in a class of 40). The same in popularity. I had a little group of friends. The clever, popular girls ignored us.
In secondary school, I don't remember there being any distinction. I went to the sec mod, all the popular girls passed their 11 plus and went to the grammar school.

I was never a bridesmaid either dogsmother. Too late now

Not really, maybe when I was naughty showing off..
Nor was I ever a bridesmaid to anyone. Although I have been godmother a few times.

Like Shinamae I was always picked last for netball, yes I wasn’t much good but it was still a horrible feeling being kept standing there at the end. Wasn’t in the in crowd but made good friends who are still friends over 60 years later.
I was a border line 11+ and interviewed with 4 others. None of us got a place and we all ended up at the local all girls sec mod, not offered a 13+ opportunity.

I think a lot depends on how we define 'popular'. I remember two girls at primary school who were popular in the sense that lots of other girls wanted to play with them at breaktime, invited them to parties and so on. The thing was that nobody liked either of them. They were horrible bullies, and people were basically afraid to get on the wrong side of them. They were on-and-off friends with one another, and we would often get to school to be asked 'whose side are you on? J's or B's?' and we would have to pick a side. Then the girls would 'make friends' again, claim that one had apologised to the other, and ostracise the ones who had sided with the 'wrong' one. At 11, one of them went to private school and the other was left without her sidekick. Her 'popularity' was shown for what it was then.

I think that a fair number of 'popular' people are a bit like that one way or another. Yes, there are those who are easy to get along with and don't have many people who 'don't' like them, but on the whole I think that most people have a few friends, a few more acquaintances and rub along (or not) with everyone else.

I was like that - I had a few friends throughout school, and a wider circle outside of it. I was always 'willing to speak my mind'?, which made me both friends and enemies depending, but I was never bothered about that either way, really.

good point riverwalk

but seeing as all my fellow pupils voted for me to be head girl i figure they liked me

ok so i was always the one others wanted to sit next to and i always got invited round to houses for tea

Word for word what Blondiescot said!

Hmm... Lillie you sound like the ideal pupil!

I read the thread title as being whether one was popular with fellow pupils, rather than successful and achieving.

definitely naughty too zoe
but never got caught

Well I assume I was as never had any problems with making friends or ever bullied.