Were you popular and sporty in school?

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At Junior School I was never popular, but I was well liked by pupils and teachers and I flourished academically, as well as being an accomplished all rounder. I loved school and would have lived there if I could.

At Grammar School I was an oddity for all sorts of reasons to do with my home life, my out-of-date uniform, prolonged absences from school etc.- and I hated sports because of the endless opportunities it provided to expose me to ridicule and petty bullying.

I loved team sports and did pretty well at that in school. My friend hated team sport. But as we got older and too old for teams she took up cycling and hiking long distances. Now in out 60s she is the most active and the fittest. I struggled to continue an active life, missing the team element. I do gym and some walking. Sometimes l think it's easier long term to be a solo player.

I was neither sporty, nor academic nor was I popular! At primary school I was generally top of the class, then I had Scarlet Fever, back at school I decided I just couldn't concentrate, but it turned out I couldn't hear very well, no one noticed my problem so I just fell behind more and more. I eventually decided I had to leave home, ironically as a Post Office telephonist (I had no idea I had a hearing problem) in London, I loved the job. My dad was disappointed I didn't fo to university and do medicine - his dream, mine was to work in a dress factory and start with pattern cutting, but dad wouldn't have his daughter working in factory. I now acknowledge I am deaf and wonder what life would have been like if only we had known!!

Loved PE played for the school hockey and badminton teams. Was fairly academic but not a swot- hated exams and had major panic attacks days before taking them.
Think it stemmed from having it drummed into us that 'O' levels were the most important set of exams we'd ever take as they were our stepping stones to a 'successful' future.
After I'd taken my 'O' levels the panic subsided to an almost 'laissez-faire' attitude by the time I sat my finals at uinversity!

I left school after 'o' levels to make my own way in the world and never had any desire whatsoever to be elected a prefect or, God forbid, head girl. Being ink monitor (unelected) was as good as it got for me.

Personally, I don't equate being sporty with being popular. I was absolutely rubbish at athletics, liked games - tennis, rounders etc but was never really arsed about getting picked for teams or not because I had lots of other things going on and wasn't bothered about the opinions of the team pickers anyway.

Oh yes, they're horrible.
We would have had them confiscated.
But I don't think they had been invented either!

PG Tips cards anyone?

One of these.
They used to sit them on their desks.

I feel so old reading that, MissAdventure

Gymslips, ghastly gym tunics, velour hats and satchels.
Not a hint of lip gloss (actually, I don't think it had been invented) and hair had to be short or tied up.

In fact, I don't think trampolines had been invented either.

What is a gonk?

I wasn't sporty or popular, but I didn't care much.
I bloody hated getting undressed in a crowded changing room, then bouncing around on a trampoline, when I was self conscious about wearing a silly pleated p.e skirt.
The popular girls didn't appeal to me, either.
All flicky up hair and lip gloss, and carrying their gonks and pencils around in wicker baskets.

Elusivebutterfly

I was quiet at school but good academically, near the top for all written subjects.
I hated sport and am quite unco-ordinated. I always felt awful when girls were picked for teams as I knew I would be standing there until the last couple chosen.
I also hated art as could not draw well and my pictures were never chosen to go on the wall.
It did seem as if the fact that I could do academic subjects well did not count much compared with physical abilities.

Very similar. I never understood why you could be mocked for being rubbish at sports but if you laughed at anyone in class you were in big trouble.

I was a swotty kid when my back was against the wall so passed all my exams.
That sounds boastful but it wasn't meant to be.
Thinking about it, some of us were a bit of a nightmare at school, rebelling against some of the more strict teachers.
I feel rather sorry for those teachers now.

Ps I went to an all girls school so that could make a difference re popularity.

I was a swotty kid and hated sport

I was a swotty kid when my back was against the wall so passed all my exams.

As for sport, I loved it until hockey was on the syllabus. Never could balance on a parallel bar or climb a rope, though.
I never did domestic science but managed to feed a family somehow.

with the exception of Netball and Tennis
My favourites, Jzpap

Popularity? I think I liked most people, got on well with them and had close friends too. I'm still in touch with some of them 60 years later.

Hated sport but was very academic and popular

I loved sport and was chosen as Centre in netball and CF in hockey. I don't think they "bully off" anymore? But I wasn't one of those teachers favourites. So all season I played and in the finals I was replaced by teachers pets. I never once received a "medal" for my efforts, they were awarded to those who played in the finals.

@biglouis

You sound just like me, I was to of the class for pretty much everything academic and my PR teacher actually wrote in my school report that I was "an accident waiting to happen"!

Nope. I was a skinny nerd who played violin, earned top grades, worked in the school library, hung out in the art room and avoided physical education like the plague.

I was into team sports big time with reasonable success. Hated athletics with a vengeance. Popular? Very much middle of the road with good friends and no enemies. Think of my schooldays with great joy even now.

I was a swimmer and runner (loved cross country), but rubbish at anything linked to a ball. Trouble was if you were good at one sport you ended up in all the teams.

Popular? Nope! I didn't (and still don't), know how to be a friend, in part because we were always moving , and in part because I have mild Asperger's. People don't want to be honest, and I'd never understood how to be.

I was, a fat child with glasses. Also academic. I hated sports and PE and avoided it like the plague. Spent the first two terms of sixth hiding in the girls' cloakroom with a group of friends to get out of double PE. I was, and still am, very clumsy. Despite the fact I was probably the girl most likely to be bullied I never was. I put this down to the fact that although I was academic I was never one of the "swotty" group and that I had good looking, very outgoing older brother that the other girls liked!

I was certainly not sporty at all. I don’t think I was either particularly popular or unpopular although I had my friends and in particular my best friend. I’m still friends with her nearly 60 years later and I love her like a sister. She’s one of my favourite people in my life.

"Paperbackwriter is lazy" - appeared on my end of term report from the games mistress one year; a highly accurate comment on my prowess and interest in the subject. I was quite good at climbing ropes but otherwise, just.. no.

No and NO

Absolutely useless at sport, one good friend otherwise everyone I knew and liked went to the secondary modern whilst I was sent to the ‘Tech’. Since my hands might as well have been lumps if wood, and I had the craft skills if a haddock, this was the most wasted Education ever and detested. I finally got my MSc with Merit (never did get a first degree) aged 48 in a firmer polytechnic, by which time I actually knew what I was good at, something no teacher ever managed to figure out.

Obviously I then, after 14 years as an instructor, taught in a Russel Group University before becoming a local Government Advisor.

I loathed PE and team sports! If only we could have had keep fit or something like zumba - I would have enjoyed that. I formed my own little group of friends in the end; we were the rebels. But eight of us got Oxbridge places and the headmistress who hated us as much as we hated her, had to congratulate us. Sweet victory.