Sports Day

Sports days (British English) or field days (American English) are events staged by many schools and offices in which people participate in competitive sporting activities, often with the aim of winning trophies or prizes. Though they are often held at the beginning of summer, they are staged in the autumn or spring seasons, especially in countries where the summer is very harsh. Schools stage many sports days in which children participate in the sporting events. It is usually held in elementary schools.

Game Types
Games that are played on school sports days can be wide and varied. They can include straightforward sprints and longer races for all age groups as well as egg and spoon races. Three-legged races are run as well as sack races, wheelbarrow races, and parent and child races. Long jumps and high jumps are also held. Additional games are traditionally run in Ireland, and the UK, such as horseshoes.

Filming
Since the mid-1990s, a number of schools and education authorities have banned photography and filming with video cameras at sports days and other school events. Some authorities cite general privacy issues as justification for the ban. Others have raised concerns about pedophiles, which in turn has sparked accusations of hysteria and moral panic. Many parents have expressed anger at being unable to take photographs or videos as souvenirs of these events, and the ban has been criticised by some as a paranoid over-reaction to public concerns about pedophilia and child safety issues.

In Offices
Many large organizations have sports days for their employees. One notable example is Her Majesty's Civil Service in the UK, which holds a number of departmental sports days.

Controversies
There have been a number of controversies surrounding school sports days in recent years, many of which have been publicized by the media. Some schools have abolished or heavily altered sports days on the grounds that they are too competitive and may damage pupils' self-esteem, with some commentators calling for the event to be banned due to the public humiliation caused to those children who are not gifted athletically. This view has been condemned as "political correctness" by many commentators, notably by journalist Melanie Phillips in her 1996 book All Must Have Prizes, a book heavily criticized by reviewers for its alleged prejudiced, fact-less and distorted analyses.