To ask what exactly happens on sports day?

[hellokittymania]

I didn't grow up here, so I have no clue. Do you just do sports all day? Like football, I have no idea.

In the US, our Sports days were called field days, and they were really fun. We had a waterslide, eight Popsicles, had a watermelon speed, sorry seed spitting contest so we ate the watermelons and save the seeds to spit them. Anyway, it was really fun. But it was more like a playtime, then a competition. I also remember we had a tug-of-war, and jumped rope to dance music.

So please, somebody tell me in the UK what sports day is like. And is it just for primary school? In the US, it was mainly for elementary students. I attended the residential special-needs school, so we did it until eighth grade I think. But usually you stop doing it at fifth grade. At least in Florida anyway. I don't know about different states.

[182yellowsnails]

Primary and secondary both do it, can be loads of different things. In primary I think it's a bit more fun, like egg & spoon races. In secondary tends to be more competitive and actual sports football, netball, rugby etc

[LoopyLou1981]

Unless they’ve changed dramatically since I was at school, I think you’re going to be a bit disappointed!
It used to be a few races (egg and spoon, beanbag on your head, three legged race etc). Then your mum and/or dad was allowed to stay while you ate your packed lunch and drank warm squash!x

[Seeline]

It will vary from school to school. Primary are usually a combination of things described above. Ours was just plain running races. Secondary are normally a range of athletic events - track and field. Secondaries may have other competition during the year for football, netball etc, but not normally as part of sports day.

[CloudCaptain]

Yep a few races, egg and spoon, sack race, three legged and then maybe a parents race.
Your field day is more like a school fete or fayre. Which is a way schools raise funds. Generally have hoopla, cake stalls, maybe tug-o-war athletes and fairs. The village often have these in the summer too.

[hellokittymania]

Thank you yellow. I think I'm glad I missed out on it then... just out of curiosity, but in the UK do you have to do sports all throughout secondary school? In the US, at least in Florida when I was at school, you only had to do Half a semester of health, but that was no physical activity, it was more on nutrition and sex education on things. Then they changed it right before I left high school so we had to do a semester of a sport. I had to do weight training and I hated it! They would let me occasionally walk around the track and put music on, which I loved. I don't mind walking, and I love music, but I hated those weights!

[callymarch]

sports day right through to end of secondary school (although year 11's dont as they have left school by the time sports day comes around)

activities depend on the school. in my experience infants do lots of little races, egg and spoon, obsticle race, sack race etc,.

Juniors more races, longer ones maybe 400m, 100m etc. relay races, some schools have hurdles, long jump etc.

secondary have more variety, mine do races again varioius distances, long jump, high jump, javelin, discus, hocky, football, netball, all general sport related.

some kids (the sporty ones) love it, others (mine) hated every moment of it being non-sporty.

Parents tend to only attend infants and juniors. Kids would disown you if you turned up at seniors - in fact our senior school said no parents.

[MaisyPops]

At the secondaries near me, it differs.
Some schools it's athletics on the school field and it's participants only. At others the schools can use the county grounds and most students go. There's stalls and it's a full athletics day. You also tend to get silly staff events so the students can see staff get involved laugh at our expense and then spend the next week commenting on who did what

The former was quite boring in my opinion and seemed to focus on staff covering PE so sports day can run and really it was a normal day but with sporty people doing sport.
The latter has worked in a few schools I've worked in. They've generally been really fun (and most years students have insisted on buying me ice cream so i can't complain too much). I really enjoy it, but you get some whining staff who love to complain.
I'm not sure the second model would work in all schools. Some schools I've worked in the second model would be catastrophically bad.

[callymarch]

everyone does PE right through to end of secondary school, its compulsory

[BarryTheKestrel]

Our school sports day in primary was mainly races and skipping and throwing etc. In secondary we did javelin and shot put and high jump etc.

It's essentially athletics competitions between the children. In primary it's generally all for fun, in secondary it becomes more competitive for the sporty ones.

Primary ones will have an element of fun to them, egg and spoon race, sack race, parents race etc. But it does depend entirely on the school and their sports provision as to what they do.

[LIZS]

Depends on age. For early years and ks1 it tends to be some short track races and obstacle course. Sometimes a parents race. In junior it may start to get more competitive as more sporty children start to shine in track and field but there may still be team games and activities on a carousel basis. By secondary it becomes a more formal track and field meet, perhaps with the odd fun race such as a sack race.

[hammeringinmyhead]

As far as I know PE carries on until the end of school (GCSEs at 16). You do a sport per half term at my old school e.g. tennis, athletics, basketball. It sucks.

[MsJuniper]

I was so disappointed when I started secondary school and realised there were no "fun" races on sports day. If you weren't an actual sporty person you wouldn't be participating so you'd just sit and watch other people running up and down a field. So boring and demoralising.

[hellokittymania]

Hammering my head, it sounds like it would. We had to do PE in middle school, so until the end of eighth grade. It was adopted, of course, and some of the things we did were quite fun. We were allowed to move around on roller racers, I think they were called. They are these things you sit on, and they have handlebars, so you can move around. Anyway, they eventually only allowed the elementary students to use them. But I remember loving that. We had Goalball as well, it's a sport for visually impaired. Are used to love it, but in actual fact, I wasn't supposed to be playing it because I have a detached retina. So I wasn't actually allowed to compete on the Goalball team, which I would have loved to do. I did cheerleading for a while, which I loved since I did gymnastics. So whenever we would have a down stay, or something like that. I really liked it. The pool was absolutely freezing, which is the same because I love swimming, just not going in the freezing pool. I didn't like basketball, I think we did an adapted version of volleyball, or weightlifting.

Sometimes though we were just allowed to play a game, oh and I think we had a parachute with balls if I remember it which I loved as well.

Somebody asked me if I would like to go along to Blind tennis. Ha ha ha. In your dreams

[hellokittymania]

This is what Goalball is, for those who haven't heard of it. I'm not allowed to play because sometimes the ball can be thrown very hard and it can hit you in the head. So if you have some site, like I do, and have had a detached retina, getting hit in the head is very dangerous as it can detach the other retina. The youth championships, shown in the video, or held at my school, so we used to be able to get out of class to go and watch the championship. They would be held the same weekend as our homecoming, not sure how to explain homecoming to all of you, but it's basically this big event where you usually have football, and then a big dance. But because we were blind, we hosted the Goalball nationals instead and then all of the goalball teams would be invited to our homecoming dance. Anyway, everyone had a good time, and a lot of my classmates won medals over the years, some even have a computer at the Olympics. So we all would enjoy cheering them on.

And by the way, in case you're wondering why everybody wears a blindfold, it's to make it equal playing. Some people who have low vision or parcel site have an advantage over those who are totally blind. So everyone wears a blindfold. It's the same with Blind football.

[hellokittymania]

Competed at the Olympics that should have read.

[confusedofengland]

At my Dses infant & junior schools, they are lots of little races, both sporting & novelty & then for the infants you take a picnic afterwards to share with the kids. It is competitive & the winners get medals, but it's fun.

At the private secondary school I attended, it lasted for a whole weekend day, was only pupils who had qualified in heats & was lots of different sports. All done to a high level. Again, families took picnics with champagne etc & lots attended. It was part of Exhibition Weekend where parents were given a tour of the school & there was Mass & Prize giving. All very formal. We were not allowed to miss It, even though it was at the weekend.

[LIZS]

Yes it is normal to continue sport as part of the curriculum throughout school. In later years the options may include dance, badminton, synchro swimming, climbing and so on. Even in the 80s I did iceskating on games afternoon.

[hellokittymania]

LIZS. Synchronize swimming! I would have loved to try that. I love ice-skating too. I want to lessons, but my mother wouldn't let me. Even though there was a figure skating coach who had thoughts of blind students in our area. We did take trips to the ice rink, and the rollerskating rink, I remember those.