Leaving primary - no celebration

[Lailalily]

It was talking with another mum and it make me think about our children finishing primary school.

They worked so hard all these years and grow up together, making lovely friendships and memories. For many of them they been together since Reception and now they are all going separate ways for secondary school.

I feel a little sad that our school do not really do a big celebration for them. They have hoodies and do a play. It is such an important moment in their lives and I think they deserve a nice ending to their primary education after all their hard work.

Please let me know what your schools do? Do they have leavers party, prom, disco, special trip or something else? Any ideas are welcome.

Maybe it is just me, but I feel they deserve something special to celebrate this milestone before they move on.

The PTA don’t have anything to do with the hoodies?

My children left primary school years ago. Leavers,hoodie,assembly and party.Job done!

My eldest son’s school while quite a deprived school, no PTA, they had hoodies and a play. I can’t remember if they had a party or disco, if they did it was in school time. My youngest went to a village school with a very active PTA, they had personalised year books, hoodies, a play, a trip to London, AND and school party that included bouncy castles, BBQ, parents invited etc etc. Somewhere in the middle is probably right lol.

Oh god yes AND an assembly.

My kids had a t shirt with all their names and a barn dance which the parents catered. The head gave a lovely speech with memories of each child - most of the kids would continue on to the attached senior school so they weren’t leaving as such. Then change of head who cancelled the barn dance all they got was the T-shirt.

Ours had a trip to an adventure place after sats (organised by school, paid for by parents), there’s hoodies and a leavers play/assembly, and there’s a y6 leavers party after school on the last day, organised and paid for by parents without school involvement. It’s a small village primary school though and a tight community.

we live in a village and our schools are small, so we probably do care.

Hoodies and a play sounds good! Ours goes totally overboard tbh. Last week of term this week (Scotland) and we’ve already had the P7 show and disco last week, then this week is leavers assembly on Monday, bowling and our for lunch on Tuesday, shirt signing and year books on Weds and on the last day on Thursday they get piped out and then everyone goes for ice cream (children) and drinks (parents).

which is lovely, and obviously I’m very grateful to everyone involved in organising it, but it’s a lot. On my last day of P7 we just went to the chippie - I’d have been mortified if my entire family turned up to clap me out the building 😂

Hoodies were ordered pre-Christmas and they’ve been wearing them since January.

And a church service 🙈 honestly think some of the PTA parents need jobs, a special year 6 committee was stood up in September…no joke…

(I thought this was maybe just their school - as the piper is a relative of one of the kids so does it for free - but having spoken to people with kids at a range of schools across the city apparently the last day piper is A Thing)

When mine left Y6, they had a great evening at a local Chinese (all you can eat buffet) and then a disco-it was really nice. The parents organised it though-why don’t you arrange something yourself?

Yes our deprived school also funded the hoodies so no one was left out.

I heard someone talking about a nursery graduation ceremony the other day! Seriously OTT.

It’s a thing parents organise at the two schools DS attended. We got the use of a hall across from school, borrowed some decks, lighting, after a barbecue in the school grounds organised by the PTA.

Ours did leavers hoodies, which parents paid for, and a leavers assembly which inevitably led to a hall full of sobbing kids even if they didnt know the leavers because it was so emotional.

It doesnt need more than that. Not every kid is sad to be leaving, not every parent is sad to be leaving it behind.

I agree with PP's who have said that not every milestone needs bells and whistles. Things move on, and learning that that is the case is a good life lesson.

Youngest (now 15) got that and my eyes rolled so hard they almost got stuck in the back of my head.

The example above only four people said yes.

It's usually just a couple of parents who care about this stuff.

My DD leaves first school this year to go to middle school so is end of Y4 and her school has the following:

They've been able to wear their leavers hoodies since September (which I do agree with as it ensures value for money).

To send them off they have:
A year book (£17 and optional)
Disco (free)
Play (free - performed on two evenings)
Leaver’s Assembly on the last morning

The PTA arranges the year books and the disco.

I left primary school in 1991 with a simple ‘goodbye’. Times have changed!

I left primary in 1983 and to be honest, I am surprised we got anything other than a "fuck off" due to some of my classmates!

No assembly, no hoodies, just a "good luck at senior school". We survived,

I'm sure the school would be happy for you to organise and fund a little party with the other parents.

🙂

My DSs nursery did this, it wasn’t that big of a deal though, nice parents morning at nursery (which they did every half term anyway) and I still have a cute picture of him in their cap and gown now and he’s leaving y6 soon. Not exactly over the top

Oh give it a rest with the “kids these days” nonsense. It’s a bit of fun.

If just surviving is your only goal in life for you or your children, that’s pretty dire.

Exactly.
Dds school had a prom and she's 25, it's not new.