Insight

School Days: the best days of your life?

School Days: the best days of your life?

  • A fifth of Brits who attended secondary school in the UK, felt that they were ?loners? at school (19%)
  • One in five believe that Religious Education was least beneficial to their education (21%)

According to the study, nearly one in five adults, who attended a UK secondary school, (19%) say they were a ?loner? at secondary school whilst only one in seven classed themselves as having been popular (15%). The research also showed that a larger proportion of men than women considered themselves to be the sporty type (19% Vs. 9%) while a higher percentage of women confessed to being the teacher?s pet compared to men (10% Vs. 4%). Other popular playground stereotypes were:

  • Loner (19%)
  • Cool/popular kid (15%)
  • Sporty (14%)
  • Geek (9%)
  • Class Clown (9%)

When it comes to misdemeanor in the school yard, those who attended a UK secondary school, appear to be relatively tame ? most (36%) say that not doing their homework was one of the three most disobedient things they did during their secondary school years, while three in ten (30%) said it was skipping lessons. For just over one in five (23%) it was being late for school. Twenty-one per cent of women admit they didn?t dress to school code versus thirteen per cent of men! One in ten (11%) admit to throwing punches at their classmates. A higher percentage of men were ready to confess to this than women (20% Vs. 3%). One in twenty (5%) drank alcohol whilst at school, and 3 per cent admit cheating in exams.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, a higher proportion of males have been subjected to pranks during their time at secondary school. Towel whipping – the changing room classic was suffered by just over one in nine men (12%) versus just one in one hundred women (1%)! And another playground favourite, the ?wedgie? has been suffered by one in ten (11%) men, compared to only two per cent of women (one in fifty).

Although playground memories stay with Brits well into adulthood it seems that many felt they did not benefit from some of the lessons they were taught at school. When asked which subject they felt was least beneficial to their education, one in five (21%) thought that Religious education was the subject that they were least likely to have used outside of school, followed by art (deemed unhelpful by 16%) and gym (10%). At the opposite end of the scale only one percent of us thought that sex education and information communication technology (ICT) were a waste of time.

James Endersby, managing director of Opinium Research, commented: ?Whether you were a loner or a class clown most of us have fond memories of our school days. Recollections of secondary school often centre on the mischief of the playground and the pranks that many of us may have been at the receiving end of as kids. For some these memories are much stronger than anything they were ever taught in the classroom!?

Share your favourite school memory #rememberwhen @opiniumresearch

Opinium Research carried out an online survey of 2,007 nationally representative (UK adults aged 18+), of which 1,844 attended a secondary school in the UK. 12th to 16th July.