94% of secondary school pupils taking part in Sports Day this year

  • One in five (22%) pupils go to schools which reward all pupils for taking part in Sports Day
  • Half of pupils (49%) go to schools which only do serious races at sports days
  • Teacher race is the most popular ‘fun’ race

Sports Days will be taking place in schools across the country this summer, and according our recent survey, of over 1,000 secondary school pupils, 94% of pupils will be taking part this year in this annual school tradition.

The survey found that rewards are an important part of Sports Day. Two fifths (42%) of pupils say their school gives prizes to only the winners at sports day, but one in five (22%) reward everyone, with the winners getting a special prize.  Over a quarter of pupils go to schools which schools link the sports days results to house points, with 11% only giving house points, and 17% giving house points and individual prizes.

When asked about what races take place during Sports Day, the survey found that almost half of pupils (49%) go to schools which only do serious races at sports days and a third (34%) go to schools which combine the serious races with the fun ones. The most popular fun races are the teacher races (30%), three legged (24%), egg and spoon (23%) and the sack race (15%). Parent races don’t seem to make it to secondary school, with only 7% of pupils saying that parent races are held at their school

It is great to see that Sports Day is still an important part of the school calendar, and interesting to see how different schools choose to motivate and reward participants. Do get in touch and let us know about your Sports Day.

The survey was sent to all secondary schools across the UK in May 2016 and promoted to the 68,000 secondary school pupils that use www.mystickers.co.uk. Over 1,000 pupils took part. For more information please email [email protected]