to think kids should leave school without all this fuss?

[Newcupboards]

Leavers' Assemblies where every last ounce of emotion is wrung out of kids, parents and teachers with Year 6 murdering singing 'Slipping Thru My Fingers' whilst photographs of them from Reception to current day are projected onto the wall.

Then there's the Leavers' Proms! Bloody tacky American import

In my day we had a quick mention in morning prayers (primary) and a disco without a limosine and the same at secondary. Now it's squeals and emotional incontinence.

Can't we just get back a bit of British stiff upper lip and get on with life changes without making such a drama.

I'm on the fence on this. But I do get where you're coming from.

I'm like Annabel I love and loathe this kind of thing in equal measure.

Not every school prom does limos and £300 pound dresses. Dd had her prom the other week: a friend's mum kindly offered a lift, I was going to suggest public transport. No ounces of emotion were wrung out of anyone as far as I am aware. I said "have a nice time, dd" when she left and "did you have a nice time, dd?" when she came back (and yes, she had).

I have seen 'graduation' pics for nursery on Facebook complete with throwing hats in the air....

but why call it a prom, if disco is old hat then why not call it a dance?

(and may I just correct my spelling error: limousine)

DD1 has just been to her leavers' disco; an actual disco and barbecue, no limos, no corsages, just a pretty dress from Primani :)

Thank goodness sanity reigns in one part of the British Isles (i.e. where HouseAtreides lives)!

In dd's case (leaving secondary) it was a meal + disco. I don't think there is anything particularly bad about calling it a prom rather than a meal+disco.

Yes, prom is an American loan word, but then dance is a French loan word; discotheque isn't very Anglo-Saxon either.

it's several decades ago, but I remember leaving secondary school. (an all-girls one!). I think there were a couple of outings and a few small get togethers, but that was it.

as far as I was concerned, the school was tasked to educate me, and I was tasked to get educated. Business contract, end of.

and I have never forgotten hearing one of my friends say to one of the other girls 'have a nice life'.

I very much appreciate that my dd's school has arranged a variety of different activities etc. for when they finish on the 23rd. I no doubt will blubber during the leavers assembly but hey I am a little sad like that.

Ds's school are having a barbeque and karaoke party and an assembly/play thing. That seems about the right amount of celebration to me.

YANBU.

DS has had a Leavers' assembly, Leavers' Tea, Leavers' Concert, Leavers BBQ, and Leavers Party.

Total cost of gifts, yearbooks, personalised hoodies etc almost £100.

All a bit much.

"Emotional incontinence" I like that-

I dont like the use of the prom idea, disco is much better but when I left primary school many moons ago we had a leavers assembly and a leavers party.

I'm all for a bit of British stiff upper lift.

GRADUATION is for those leaving University, not year 6.

Oh yes Merguez the year books. What goes into them? Our school Y6 children have gone on a fund-raising spree for these bloody yearbooks...

YANBU. Just have a school disco and a sensible "well done and good luck" in assembly.

My dd's nursery had a mock graduation for the school leavers last year, but nothing mentioned this year so possibly they aren't doing it again. I'm hoping they won't as dd is the only one going to her school, everybody else got into the local school, we live about a mile further away so in a different catchment. I'm a little worried that the mock graduation would be a flashpoint for a monster teary tantrum.

Yes, it's bloody stupid and mawkish and I hate the over-dramatising of it. I accept I am a curmudgeon

Why are parents involved in the Leavers' Assemblies and obliged to sit there and smile tearfully or - to the mortification of their child - actually blub? During the school day parents should either be at work or at home MNetting, not sniffing into their tissues as they listen to their Year 6ers sing "The Way We Were"!

They're just going to secondary school - not being evacuated!

I cannot imagine a group of children singing Slipping Through My Fingers. Or maybe I just don't want to

noooo, you have to have the leaving assembly! Our year 6 are having theirs next week, all of us staff who have shared in the growing up of your children will have to say goodbye. We have cuddled them when they cried, plastered them when they bled, counselled them when they are upset, nurtured them through family crises,sometimes see them find their forever families, taught them the flipping curriculum and watched them grow from littlies to big ones. I shall be bawling my eyes out. YABU!

The photo montage/song would make me cry but then I'm just wet