One in 20 (six percent) secondary school pupils won’t attend a Sports Day this year, as their school doesn’t hold one. For many, the day has become an annual school tradition.
A survey of 2,023 secondary school pupils by School Stickers, leading provider of innovative school rewards, found that of those pupils who are able to attend a Sports Day nearly a third (31%) really enjoy the competition of Sports Day, over a quarter (28%) say that their school makes it fun even for those that are not good at sport and 23% say they think it is fun even though they never win.
Only one in 10 (11%) dread Sports Day as they don’t like sport, and one in 10 (11%) dread it as they are not good at sport.
The survey also found that two fifths (40%) of pupils go to schools where only the winners are rewarded at Sports Day. However a fifth (22%) go to schools where all participants are rewarded, a further 13% go to schools where no individual prizes are given, but points are awarded to their House, and 16% go to schools where prizes are given to winner as well as house points.
Neil Hodges, Managing Director of School Stickers, said: ”There is a lot of talk at the moment about young people not doing enough exercise, so it is a shame that 200,000 teenagers are going to be missing out on an event, which if done right, can be a great way of reminding teenagers how much fun sport can be.”
