“Graduating” from nursery/infants/primary etc

[Happypuppy]

Kinda light hearted.

AIBU or is this a ridiculous concept? My fb feed is littered with pictures of kids “graduating” from what? Fucking messy play for a year ?

Complete nonsense

@BlueBug45 I understand that they can’t fail it. I never said that. Although maybe we could introduce little nursery graduation classifications to give them something to aim for .

My point was that it can be viewed as an exercise in building trust between a family and the concept of achieving in education, regardless of how little it actually “counts” for. Like I said, I realise our parents aren’t typical of those across the country.

I think it's cute

I saw someone posting about their 1 year old graduating from “baby sensory” class, with a cap and gown. Pretty ridiculous but I suppose it’s light hearted?

It's a ridiculous concept same as school proms

Absolutely. Those making the fake baby caps n gowns must be rubbing their hands in glee as they rip off hundreds of schools and nurseries around the country (surely their funding doesn’t cover this? And if parents are paying, what about those who can ill afford it but feel obliged?)

It’s all just very, very silly and unnecessary.

As my DS said at 16 of his high school prom - “Why would I want to pay a lot of money to stand around drinking cokes all night?” Ever the realist! 😂

My DB brother sent me photos if DN11"graduation" a few days ago. I didn't know this was a thing in the UK. She was decked out in cloak and mortarboard. Looked lovely but really? How ridiculous

Of course it’s a bit naff, every parent knows that and most of them will realise it doesn’t compare to a university graduation! It’s cute and a bit of fun, simple.

I’ve graduated for real and i thought that ceremony was a bit naff too tbh!

Lighten up!

@DanelionAndBedrock I know you never said that.

A good bye assembly at school or a good bye celebration at nursery would more appropriate as they have reached an age related milestone.

To graduate you have to unfortunately have the risk of faing and not graduating, and until GCSE age this doesn't happen.

failing rather

Let’s agree to disagree. Personally, I don’t think you need to have avoided failure to count as a graduate of something .

If I want to celebrate my DD's achievements / progression / next chapter then I will 😀 Do be miserly. Stay off FB if it annoys you that much.

*dont

Depends doesn't it.

My DD went to nursery full time from 6 months old until she was 5. She is almost at the end of her primary school years and yet she is still very close to the friends she made at her nursery and I'm still very close with the other mums that I met there.

Her nursery was such a big part of the first 5 years of her life and it was really important to mark the move to school. However, sneer away if you must.

Our preschool has a wonderful end of year tradition. We sit in the garden, the children pick a few of their favourite songs to sing to their parents as their end of year show and then we have tea/juuce and cake and a play. The keyworkers give each child a book they've chosen for them as a leaving gift. I think it strikes just the right balance to mark the occasion without being forced or gimmicky. In my opinion it's much nicer than the nursery graduation ( have done that too) which felt stunted and wasn't so much about the children as posing for the camera.

My DD’s nursery graduation was an assembly where they received a school tie and certificate. They had little cloak things which belonged to the nursery to be reused. And they came into the hall and walked round all the seating to the tune of ‘one more step along the World I go’. It was just lovely and their school in particular is very conscious of cost to the family so there was no unnecessary spending or expense.

I’d previously been so so cynical about such ceremonies but there I was, crying, cheering and wielding my phone camera like everyone else.

I have graduation photos of both my dc leaving nursery. No ceremony, just one cap and gown, each child put on and had a photo taken. I LOVE the photos. They are so so unbelievably cute! They worked bloody hard too. Fighting over cars and being bitten, not just messy play!

I think it's so bloody stupid. I know of a school that does a graduation from every class - you're only moving on to the next group ffs! It goes way ott.

Absolute nonsense but I loved ours! Bit of harmless fun!

It's a bit naff but in the grand scale of things, completely harmless and the kids and parents seemed to genuinely enjoy it at my ds's school. I can't get my knickers in a twist about it.

YNBU - I find it ridiculous and nauseating.

I teach in primary and found out that our Reception classes did something this year to celebrate "graduating" from the Foundation stage. How can you "graduate" when it's not something that you could fail? It's just the end of the first year at school.
I found that, when I tentatively put a few feelers out, I was far from the only person to think it was a daft idea. I blame Pinterest. It's full of American teachers and lots of crap American ideas have worked their way over here because of it.

Be all means celebrate children's time in a setting. Have a sing song and a teddy bears picnic in nursery or a leavers' assembly in primary school. Give children a chance to say goodbye to their friends, to share their memories and to look forward to the next stage.

But don't call it a sodding graduation and whatever you do don't dress them up in godawful gowns and mortar boards.

meh ds1 left primary school today it was all quite emotional at the assembley and they did the cap thing, so what its the end of an era

and i dont think any of us genuinly beleived they 'were graduating'

It's like prom, another ridiculous American import

None of my children's US nurseries, elementary or middle schools have done graduations.

I'm just hoping we don't import this ridiculous idea from the UK.

A little concert, picnic or assembly etc sounds lovely. “Graduating”is just naff. Thanks for the replies.

Nursery graduations are more for parents than kids.
It's huge when your kid has been there for 3 or 4 years. Kids grow so much in that time in fact some kids will spend more years in nursery than they will in Uni. And probably learn much more too.