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.

Leavers assembly
Play
Disco

Hoodies and party are organised by parents

Leavers party the PTA arranged and my older DC’s school also did a graduation ceremony complete with caps and gowns and they were given a bible, some got an extra trophy including my DS who was “lockdown learner of the year” ha.

When I was in year 6 we had a disco and leavers assembly. We also had a week of fun activities following SATs.

My kids’ school has done it the same for years

p7 hoodies - bought if wanted by parents at the end of p6 so they can wear them all year instead of school hoodies

bowling trip - organised by school and paid for by parents, no need for chaperones though

disco - organised and paid for parents. School has nothing to do with it

p7 show - organised by the school, tickets bought by parents but not for much money. It’s just to pay for the programme printing and such

piper to pipe them out - organised and paid for by parents. Followed by a foam fight in the park outside the school. Organised and supervised by parents.

so the school organises the show and the bowling, we pay for everything (not staff time though which is considerable) and the parents organise and pay for everything else. The PTA doesn’t do anything for the leavers

Mine (both now in their 20s) put on a musical, had a leavers’ church service, with all children being presented with a bible and some being given awards for various things, and a disco. The school organised the play and service (church paid for the bibles) and the PTA organised the disco.

Children also signed each other’s PE tops.

In my view that was plenty.

I don’t like the modern trend of making primary school discos into proms. It raises the stakes, in terms of how much parents feel obliged to spend on clothes etc, and seems to me completely over the top for a group of 11 year olds.

They had year books, hoodies and a prom at the end of year 11.

Yes this happens at DC's primary. Although my older DC who have left primary several years ago now say they didn't care about any of it. They wore the hoodie once (waste of money in their opinions).

I think a party is plenty all the other stuff is a bit unnecessary IMO. They don't care years later. In fact, my eldest who left school last year didn't like all the fuss made at high school and opted out of most of it.

We have all the usual stuff, play, residential, hoodies, awards etc. plus a water fight on the field with super soakers! It’s a lovely tradition at our school.

Absolutely agree with this. It's too hyped up. It's just primary school!

Ours is similar they also do either a residential trip or a week of local days out. The parents organise the party.

So, as this post shows, lots of things are organised by parents. Why don’t you organise something similar yourself?

At my dc school they did loads, but the parents organised it and paid for it all themselves.

I'm on the PTA. It has nothing to do with year 6 leaving activities other than handing over £10 per child to whichever year 6 parent is organising stuff this year for them to spend as they wish.

All the hoodies/party/year book malarkey is organised by year 6 parents.

OP if you want to do an event it's not too late to get off your arse and see if other parents are interested in helping to put one on.

I agree and what annoys me even more is when they assume you have lots of money/time to spare to go to all their events. Some people need a reality check.

Hoodies, play, prom, assembly. They did loads, it was lovely.

Hoodies and a leavers' assembly for mine, with anything beyond that left to parental discretion, which I think is a sensible approach. Personally, I'd trim it down to just the leavers assembly, but leavers hoodies seem to be an expectation now.

We are having an end of year 6 party after school on the last day at a nearby restaurant which is being paid for and organised by the parents. School put on the play and the year group do a devised assembly and there is a guard of honour/clap out on last day

Ds is year 6 they have hoodies, a leavers play and a school trip to a theme park. Some parents spoke a while back about organising an event but no more has been said.

i think it’s a lovely idea to mark the children’s transition from primary school. I hope you and the other parents can make it a special and memorable event

We never did anything

If they need a day out to remember each other by, then they aren’t going to miss each other very much and so probably don’t need much to mark the occasion.

My friends kids have all had their end of year celebration arranged for and funded by the parents though. The teachers are busy enough, and the schools are cash strapped. If you think the kids deserve something, have you thought about organising it?

Ours had a disco and a 3 days UK end of year residential - both organised by school but paid for by parents.
Hoodies and yearbooks organised by parents as well.
School did organise a « grand assembly » at a prestigious London venue, with complimentary refreshments.

I think a lot of the additional hoopla is organised by the PTA or a group of year 6 parents, not the school. Ours was (two different primaries). I was very appreciative of those mums for doing that.

Why don’t you organise a fun day out for your DC and invite their friends along? People wait for others to organise things but that power is within you too.

Our school does a leavers assembly and they organise the leavers hoodies.

We had a Leavers party this weekend but that was organised by the parents.

On the last day the pub opposite the school puts food on for the kids and everyone goes there for a drink and food. Again, that’s organised by the parents who confirm numbers with the landlord.

If you want a big celebration then it’s probably something you’ll have to organise yourselves.

Leavers disco
Play
Special assembly
Signing shirts on last day
Little autograph book so kids could collect message from friends - this was a waste of time and money

All kids got to choose a free novel from a selection that you might read again and again to read in the summer or beyond (funded by PTA which their teachers and HT all autographed and wrote good luck message in) and the school forked out for a leather bookmark embossed with the school’s name and crest.

NO hoodies because school and PTA couldn’t fund it and school said not fair and not environmentally friendly to force parents to fork out for something that is worn hardly at all (summer term is hot; after leaving it’s just tossed aside)

Our celebrations were all organised by parents. School organised the play, and hoodies but otherwise social activities were for others to sort, which is entirely reasonable Parents organised a post SATS night out for the kids and a disco.

Then you need to organise something. These things are usually done by the parents not the school.