Objectives To determine the pattern and risk factors of injuries among school children in Ismailia city, Egypt.

Methodology Cross-sectional school-based study of five randomly selected preparatory schools (Grades 6–8) in Ismailia governorate. Data were gathered by special form filled in by trained interviewers. It included questions about nature, cause and circumstances of injuries that needed medical care or caused activity restriction during the last 6 months.

Results The study included 1303 students from the five selected schools. The mean age of the studied pupils was 12.6+1.1 years. The most common external causes of injuries sustained by the pupils were falls (26%), road traffic accidents (23%), and burns (14%). Intentional injuries represented 4.3% of all injuries. Gender played significant role in determining the nature of injury. Most of injured pupils were treated in the outpatient's clinics and discharged home, wile 19% of them were admitted to hospitals. Trauma caused transient disability for 40% of the injured pupils, while it caused permanent disability in 1% of them.

Conclusions and Recommendations Injuries are important health problem among school children in Egypt. They were the cause of significant morbidity and disability, important cause of school absence, and has significant burden on health facilities in Egypt. Therefore, there is need to initiate national programme for identification and prioritisation of the common injuries and their risk factors that can help in the design of injury prevention and control programme. We recommend applying an educational programme targeted at injury prevention among school children in Egypt.