From the other side: I had to organise my students prom last year (as they were Year 11). I stay with my year group from their first day in Year 7 until prom (the last day of the GCSE exams). I started work at 7am and finished at midnight (yes, I was on my knees) and despite being totally anti prom and grumbling about the workload, I wept my damn eyes out as they all came down the red carpet. After the amount of GCSE exams they sat they were blissfully happy, relaxed and suddenly grown up. These children, that had somehow become young adults in front of my eyes. All the tears I had mopped, the family upsets (and deaths) the relationships and friendships that went wrong. The worry, the anxiety and panic attacks over exams, everything they had survived. And they were BEAUTIFUL, glowing and radiant with youth and I was so damn proud of them, and of the horribly underpaid, stressful job I do!
They had a fab night, took masses of photos, we did awards (funny and nice, not snarky) and then off they went; some back to 6th form, yes, but others away to college.
Yes, it's Americanised and some go mad in terms of £££s spent, but just as many of them arrived in a low key way, having spent the afternoon at each others houses doing their hair and make up. I think it's a massive rite of passage now and I'm not sure that, in general, we are good at ritual celebrations of things other than birthdays and anniversaries. Give 'em a day, I say, to shine and be beautiful.