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.

At the risk of seeming very old, when I left primary I think we just had a special assembly, and when I left secondary we just had an afternoon where we signed each others shirts. We took ourselves into town to go to Pizza Hut to celebrate.

They really are. My secondary school started doing one in the 90s and 100% it was an idea that came from American TV. Our year was the first year they did it and nobody wanted it so they ended up having to give them away because nobody paid for it.

Don't think I kept mine more than 5 minutes. As a parent I've not got to year 6/last year of primary yet but I have heard from other parents our school do do them. As far as I'm aware it's still done by the year 6 parent volunteers and not the school officially. Definitely not PTA as I've been on that for years.

My DCs primary did leavers hoodies and a play. There was a leavers party that a few of the parents got together to arrange at a local pub/party room. However the school wouldn’t have any involvement and wouldn’t even send out a message about, luckily we already had an active school parents fb page. Also one of the parents was a stay at home mum so was able to speak to the majority of the parents. Think the tickets were £10 or £15 per child and parents were expected to attend to supervise.

Parents usually organise a leavers party themselves, not the school, so feel free to sort one out with the other year 6 parents

Where I am, parents organise the leavers party.

for my children’s primary school there was an enterprise activity to raise money & this then went into a pot for the children to have a day trip- this was to Harry Potter Studios. They also organised a bowling party immediately after school in the last week.

Our school does after school inflatables for year 6. Mums normally organise a disco and/or activities day

Leavers assembly. Y6
Y6 leading the singing and dancing at the start and end of Sports Day.
Disco (run by Y6 parents).
The residential for their final year is made special with extra treats funded by the PTA.
On the final day they can visit the other year groups to say bye, this makes the teachers cry!

Don't bother with hoodies anymore.

My kids left primary when we were just coming out of covid and the school used this as an excuse to stop all leaver's events. Myself and the other parents were so upset at the prospect that the kids should miss out, after all these are formative events they will remember all their lives. So I offered to arrange a Y6 leaver's party and the school agreed.

It was hell on a stick to organise, everything from collecting money to organising the do, the school did nothing apart from to let it take place in the school hall. A handful of parents offered to help but on the whole it was all me. Nobody thanked me.

I know schools are busy and over stretched but events like these should take priority, they are milestones in kids lives and I feel so sad that so many schools just don't see it that way.

If not many parents offered to help and nobody thanked you maybe it's multiple families just not seeing it as a particularly big deal rather than just the school playing it down.

I'll be a year 6 parent next year and in three years. From what I know of the parents in each group I think a lot of the 2027 ones will be really organised and set stuff up. The 2029 ones not so much. I'm not bothered either way. Although I really don't want to pay for a hoodie.

Mine had all sorts. Leavers Hoodie, assembly, disco with pizza, signing each other shirts. A lovely but emotional end to their primary school life.

My son finished primary in July 2020. He got a hoody and had one classmate out of 30 allowed to attend with him on that day. As long as they are all together, i don't think they really need anything else at that age.

Ours had leavers hoodies and an assembly and then the parents arranged the party. It was a collect from school party bus and then it dropped off at a local village hall for buffet and disco.

There's absolutely no reason other parents shouldn't have helped out if it was important to all of you. Our school won't even have these things happen on site - we rented a church hall in the catchment. The parents all chipped in money or time or both and the kids (mostly) had a great time. Minus my daughter who mostly spent the night crying. Am not sure why the teachers should be faffing around with this stuff when they have way too many other things to do.

Didn't do anything when I finished primary school, but that was back in 1984. There seems to be a necessity now to make a celebration out of everything.

Ours do a musical & have a graduation ceremony in the last month. They are all given graduation T-shirts.
A lot of kids are very anxious about leaving so I think it’s more than enough for them.

Our kids get hoodies and have a party on the last day, but these are both organised and paid for by parents. It's the same with other schools in the area. Ours is a bit more low-key but where there are limos, party buses etc it is the parents arranging and paying.

The school has a number of fun activities in the last month that P7s take part in along with the rest of the school, but they often have a special role in those (they are encouraged to volunteer to help run the events, but also get to have extra gos on their activity, or get together for groups shots etc). And in the final week there is a special assembly that all parents are invited to. I believe their class teachers are also making a year book for them.

It is a big milestone and deserves to be marked, but schools are stretched so our school really depends on parents and the PTA to deliver the big events. Their main thing is the assembly, which is perhaps comparable to your school's play?

My dc school do a leavers service, hoodies and a disco. They also take lots of photos of the children as a class and in friendship groups and post them on the school Facebook page.

Our school does hoodies (parent pay), play, leavers assembly, disco with bbq and a surprise trip. The trip is very local.

Previous years parents organised a party, which you had to pay for tickets to cover costs. No one has organised that this year.

Last day of term there's an event at the park for local schools. A few stalls, face-painting, ice cream van, sometimes a bouncy castle. The kids go to that and hang out with their friends (which is all they want really). That's organised by the friends of the park organisation and is open to anyone.

When I left primary school we signed each others shirts and went to the park after school.

Sorry OP but your school is doing more than many. In my experience leavers’ hoodies are organised by parents. If you want them to have a party then you as parents will also have to organise this, although you are probably too late now to secure a venue.

Too much - it causes so much drama.
Hoodies all year
Play x2
Leavers Disco
Leavers Bowling trip
Water fight on the playground
Yearbook
Family BBQ
Leavers Assembly

Not to mention all the transition to High School activities (90% go to the same one).
And the normal end of year activities like sports day and Concert etc
Oh and summer fair and ‘makers week’.

DS just wants to get out of there now.

Our school does:
leavers hoodies - organised and purchased by parents.
production - organised by school.
leavers assembly - organised by school.
leavers party - organised and payed for by parents.

Is everything on that list organised by the school?

They aren’t just American is what I am saying. They really aren’t. The idea may have come from there but they aren’t just an American thing. Being Canadian we always had one and I still look at it from time to time but they are for high school and not for primary school.

I taught Year 6 for many years and always loathed the last day. For me, the worst bit was dealing with the seemingly contagious (fake) sobbing and managing the inevitable fall out from children being overexcited ( e.g. squabbles and rough play). It's fair enough to acknowledge the transition to senior school, but it does feel like things have become completely overblown.

The family BBQ is definitely organised by some eager Y6 families but the rest all comes through school. I suspect the disco is also PTA as it’s on the same night but a different time to the younger years disco.