To wonder if whole class parties are a real 'thing'?

[BaconCabbage]

Where do these happen? How do these happen?

It seems on mumsnet to be the norm for small children to have whole class parties in nursery/reception etc, but I haven't actually experienced this happening. I live in inner London so wonder if that's something to do with it?

I'd love it if this were a 'thing' but my daughter has a summer birthday so I can't try and set a trend or anything.

What is the norm for kids parties at your young kids' nursery or primary?

We did whole class parties for a few years. A friend of mine has disco equipment so I’d borrow that, and the local hall to us was really cheap (under £30) . Sometimes my friend had a spare small bouncy castle so we’d put that up too. One of the mums was a Disney impersonator, would dress up as Elsa and sing Let It Go
We played lots of games; sleeping lions, musical bumps etc. I’d also attempt face painting and glitter tattoos. We’d play noodle jousting competitions. The kids would have a pool noodle and sit on a hobby horse, gallop up and try to knock bean bags off each other.
All the parents would stay so we’d get a couple of wine boxes in too.
It was great and I miss those days. It was a lot of effort but it was so much fun.

We both hosted and attended loads in KS1, a few in KS2 but tailored off in Y5 & 6. I’ve hosted all sorts - church hall with a local dance school teaching the kids a routine, hired a local, outdoor mini railway, soft play, laser guns in a local woods, nerf wars in a school hall/gym. The best one I ever did was hiring a screening room at a local cinema. The kids had a packed lunch box to eat during the film, I bought a load of pick and mix from Mackro and they all sat in silence and watched a film! Then we cut the cake and they went home. DC are older now so it’s a few friends for a sleepover or pizza - much easier and considerably cheaper, but the whole class parities were good fun if you just embrace the chaos!

The norm here is whole class parties for nursery, reception and maybe the next year so at age 3-4-5-6 ish. They're hard going for the host as parents will often stay at that stage but very much the done thing.

100% the norm here. Parish type hall gets hired, most children have a shared party with another child who's birthday is close by.

Occasionally a child will splash out on something more expensive like trampolining but it was still all whole class in reception. In year 1 its 50/50, some whole class parties and some for 8-10 kids.
By year 2 pretty much all smaller parties.

We haven’t done it but lots do for 5th/6th/7th here.

My DD started reception in September. We had a party every weekend in October and the first weekend of November. One weekend we had two parties. Usually in the same church hall. (The same church hall we're using for her upcoming birthday too )

Yep they exist! First 2 years are class parties then the friendship groups kinda sort themselves out and the numbers reduce as they get older.
On the plus side its a nice way to make some mum friends.

We actually havent had many parties (yr1 child)- not sure if because my child's school is in a more deprived area of london.
Anyway I threw a class party in July for my August born child this year. I said she could have one class party, after which it will be girls only/ close friends I imagine.

I agree with you op I’m in south London and my 5 year old has never been invited to a party 😣 I think they are just not a thing at some schools?!

We always went with the rule (no idea where I heard it) of age of child plus one. So 5th birthday we invited 6 kids.

One of mine went to an all-class party, in a hall. It was bloody bedlam.

Central London. Whole class parties- normally hired somewhere or had in local park as my flat is tiny.

We’re in inner London and DD is in Y1 and every kid has had a whole class party, usually siblings welcome too. Private school though so smaller class and money probably not an issue.

We have been very lucky with the classes our kids are in- on the whole, all the children and parents get on well. This has meant a few whole class parties carried on a bit longer, although there was a break for covid which might be part of the reason. So even in year 4 there were a couple of discos and parties where everyone went to the local park and did sporty activities. It's nice for the less popular kids or for those without a fixed best friend. With one class, some of the parents from one class even banded together to arrange a Halloween party in the village hall when it wasn't anyone's birthday!

There were more of them in reception though- hall, bouncy castle, food.

There are still loads of parents who invite the whole class - Y3 - I thought it might have died down by now but unfortunately not.

Not here - but the infants (particularly in Reception) did a lot of mixing across the year group, so having a whole class party wouldn't have worked as DC were likely to have close friends in the "other" class. Most parents balked at inviting 60 children to a party :)

And we're not in an area where people could afford expensive parties in general anyway. If there was a party at all it would often be 6 friends at home.

I did 2 whole class parties for ds, one with all preschool and one with all reception. Both in village halls but the preschool one I booked a kids dancing person (the kids all knew her already). The reception one was manic as I thought a few would decline but literally everyone said yes and I had also invited a couple of siblings who came too plus lots of people left dc and it was lovely weather so we used the garden (no gate between garden and road) and hall. Thank god for my parents helping! oh and 2 people brought their older dc who wanted to “help” with the games so I had to enable that which was extra stress! It ended up pretty expensive.

I think ds went to maybe 4 or 5 whole class parties of others so it wasn’t the norm for all but definitely for a few.

My child is currently in reception and so far we've only had two all class parties invitations . Caveat this is a school which is very international school and most expats seem to think that all class parties are really weird. It's only the British parents who seem to be doing them. A lot of the class are also the younger siblings of someone else in the school - so most of the parents already know each other. It's a shame because we hardly know anyone so getting to know other people has been quite difficult. I wish there were more of them to be honest.

2 sounds like a lot considering your child only started in September?

Yes for reception and yr 1 but class was only 15. Most reciprocated with a whole class party too.

Is a thing here, though DS's nursery and first year of reception fell over covid restrictions, so only had a few towards the end of the year. The standard seems to be to hire a hall and a bouncy castle, then make lots of sandwiches.

Could it be a cost thing, depending on the availability of cheap hall to rent in London? Up here it would be £30 for the hall, £50 for the bouncy castle, then maybe £30 on aldi party food, so no more expensive then having 10 kids (usually minimum) at a pay per head party.

We did these. Not so much now she's 9 but the early ones were massive hall and bouncy castle and whole class. Although once the hall didn't turn up to open it so we had to do it in our tiny house 😬

@SpinningFloppa yes, I wondered what the norm is. We've been invited to other birthday parties form the school - maybe three others but they were much much smaller circa 5 kids or less.

DD is in Reception and we had her birthday last month and invited just under half the class. I always thought I’d do a full class party in Reception but as she is an Autumn baby, I didn’t know all the children and parents yet. I also worried that some might drop and run, and I’d be left looking after multiple children I didn’t know.

It worked really well with 14 children - enough children for there to be a fun atmosphere but nothing like the chaos that 30 children would have entailed!

We have whole school parties! (Only 18 kids in the whole school).

The nursery (at a different school) has about 15 kids and only been 2 whole class parties in the last 2.5 years, 1 was my DDs. We'll be doing one for my DS next year (but my rule is no proper parties until 5).

God yeah they are a thing- it was the norm in Reception. I organised a class party for DD when she turned 5 and stupidly thought that the fact I was a teacher meant I would have no difficulty in controlling the little darlings. It was a Peter Pan themed party and I spent hours making things for the party games. The first half an hour of the party involved all the little tinker bells running round in circles and screaming and the little pirates engaging in violent sword fights( these were quickly confiscated) None of them could follow any instructions for the simplest of party games ( even though these were standard games)and the CD player with the music on refused to work! It was a nightmare! Following years involved much smaller affairs where someone else would lead the party.