Last night, I was playing a game on my mobile phone while my dad was watching a programme on TV about school spirit in the USA. The kids in the programme were talking about how school spirit at their school helped them become better students, make more friends and just be happier about going to school. Before I knew it, I was watching with my dad. They were describing how they built their school spirit and how they got the other students and teachers to join in. Most schools in the States have school spirit days and some even have school spirit weeks. It started out as a homecoming tradition for high schools. Homecoming is all about welcoming back former students and celebrating the school. Now, there are school spirit events at elementary schools and middle schools, too. At elementary schools, the kids dress up and have a break from the normal school routine. They wear different clothes or costumes to match the theme that year, such as pyjamas, their favourite book characters, Disney characters, their teachers, pirates or what they want to be when they grow up. They may wear certain things like sunglasses or stripes or spots or they may come to school with crazy hair. At middle schools, it’s the same idea, but a bit less showy. They may wear flip-flops, hats, band T-shirts or just the school colours. But at high school they really get into the school spirit. They have different dress-up days, such as 'Celebrity Day' or 'Wild West Day', but they also organise charity events and collect money with food drives and bake sales. They have spirit assemblies called pep rallies. They cheer on the school sports teams and have music, chants, songs, competitions and more. School spirit helps build community feeling. The documentary looked at research that showed that students with high levels of school spirit are happier, get better grades and care more about their community than students with less spirit. They also enjoy school more and plan more for their futures than students who don’t have much school spirit. All in all, it was a very interesting programme and it gave me some ideas to suggest at my school to improve our school spirit. I’m really glad I watched it.