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 point I was making was that none of the people my age had this and none of us felt that we missed out.

At PP's have said, this is rarely about the kids but more about the parents. From my eldest (now 36) to my youngest (15) it has gone from a short leavers assembly to the full works at nursery and then primary. The older ones dont feel like they missed out and younger ones weren't bothered. Strikes me that this is more about photos for SM for the parents than actually caring about what their kids want. Far more tears and upset at the younger ones leaving than the older ones because the whole thing was designed to be emotional, which frankly I think is cruel to 10/11 year olds. Teaching healthy stoicism is no bad thing.

There was a disco I think, and a leavers' assembly with awards given out and parents invited. Can't remember if they got hoodies or not. The majority were going on to the next school together anyway.

They do it in the US
Graduation gowns and all

I don't think I even remember the names of kids from school 😂 my PS Did nothing and nobody cared 💕 if anything the only people that did were parents the kids didn't give a crap 😂😂😂

Hit a nerve has she? 😂😂😂 She's right 👍

My DCs didn’t do hoodies even but on the last day there was assembly then a picnic on the field we all contributed food to and the pta supplied ice lollies

Btw remember that many dc will have changed schools during primary due to moving, it’s a rare school to have a cohort that remains through primary together

We have leavers hoodies, a play / graduation ceremony and the kids get an evening disco (4.30pm - 7pm). All funded by PTA.

The parents also arrange an end of year party, although our parents have done one every year. It will just be a more glorified version of what we usually do - trestle tables in the park, everyone brings food. This year there'll be balloons and music. This is all parents organised.

Kids did Chessington after SAT's finished and have a 4 night residential before they leave. Both of which parents pay for.

DC1 had a year book when they left but there has been no mention of that for DC2 so I guess they stopped that?

Leavers service in a local cathedral
leavers party
school play
residential
leavers prize giving
year book
hoodie
last day - shirt signing, everyone lines up and year 6 walk past to wave goodbye. Picnic in the park and a water fight.

it’s a lot! It whips the kids up into a bit of an emotional state by the last day, and some year 6s can’t cope very well.

Our school did hoodies and play. PTA arranged party, school had no involvement. With one it was paid for by funds raised from a sale in school where kids ran stalls and the rest by PTA funds. For the other, parents got together (outside PTA)to organise it which included venue hire. Parents paid around £20 per child which included a yearbook. The latter was organised this late in the year so it is possible to do it if there is a group of parents willing and able and you are likely to be able to raise funds for it from the parents.

Our school organises a leavers performance and a leavers assembly. They also have their year six residential right before the end of term so it feels like a leavers event.
We also have hoodies organised by parents and a disco which is again parent organised, the PTA gives a small donation each year and they then charge £5 per ticket to cover the other costs (hall hire, DJ, food etc)

I don't think you need to do much, but a leavers assembly is nice.

I’m 59 and there were no celebrations when I left primary. I found all the multiple celebrations when my DCs left primary (performing a play, bbq, hoodies, leaving books, leavers service in church, endless playing outside and films plus the usual end of summer term disco) over the top and would have preferred less, the DCs got far too wound up by it all. Performing the play was an excellent thing, otherwise I think it just made them much more sad to leave. The hoodies were expensive, outgrown really quickly and rarely worn. The leaving book was filled in by the kids themselves and had a lot of pages for stuff like ‘my best friend’ and ‘favourite school dinners’ and was a complete waste of money, my DC hardly filled in any of the pages.The bbq and leavers service were for parents too and were yet more half days to take off work, on top of sports day. I’d have liked the approach your DC’s school has OP!

Leaver hoody being worn since Christmas
Performance to the rest of school and parents
Residential on their last full week with a disco one of the evenings they are away
Full school leaver assembly
Parents leaver assembly followed by family picnic

This is the first Y6 cohort in the school so it's all new to everyone there. I have nothing to compare it to really, as older child went to a different school and finished in July 2020 so they had nothing much at all.

Ours did quite a few things, play, outdoors centre trip, church service, disco but the trip and disco was arranged by PTA with parents contributing to the trip. If school doesnt have a PTA then I think it is unfair for parents to expect the school (and therefore teachers) to organise things when they have just had SATs and also reports, other transition arrangements to sort out.

You have still got time to organise something with other parents!

Does your school have a PTA op? And if so, why are they not doing more for the Y6s?

The school organises a Y6 residential, the play, the leaver’s book (which is presented after the play), leavers’ t-shirts for signing (although I think these are either donated by the local uniform shop or the PTA) and they have a picnic and games on the last day.

Leaver hoodies and the party are organised by parents.

It was a big list of stuff for my child and it was too much. Although lovely and well intentioned, I don't think a lot of them were emotionally equipped to deal with such a big fuss.

My son was crying his eyes out , it was really hard!

Ours do a special assembly in the evening for parents and they go on a day out to the leisure centre for bowling etc.

Our (small primary) do a party whole day for the whole school.

face paining
temporary tattoos
bbq
bouncy castle
tuck shop
music

Its specifically for the P7’s but everyone is included

A bit late now but if you want a trip out/leavers party, someone (the parents) have to organise it. Did you look into this @Lailalily?

It's a thankless task (a friend and I organised my son's Year 6 leavers party) but the kids loved it so it was worth it but a lot of hard work.

Leavers hoodie and an hour's disco, after which everyone went to the park for a few hours.

If you were on the PTA then you would be able to influence what happens more.

Ours had a leavers assembly where parents were sobbing like we were seeing the children off to war. I absolutely hated it. No wonder everyone has anxiety. And a ‘prom’ that was a school disco with another name. No hoodie.

They did some nice things in school after the SATS. Nob, schools or families has money for extra days out and teachers and schools don’t want to do anything extra because parents complain. The last school trip I did which involved many hours of planning and risk assessment filling in and was exhausting on the actual day, a parent came over and yelled in my face when I got off the bus because her son was sitting on the bus with a lad who wasn’t his best friend. I didn’t tell him anything about where he could or couldn’t sit or course but that was the last trip I arranged or went on.

That sounds lovely