Primary school leavers party

[Sickoflisteningmum]

The group chat has been driving me insane since one of the mums started it in January. How dramatic and over the top some of these women are and also how much time they have on their hands for a Y6 party for their precious offspring! There’s constant updates and everything HAS GOT TO BE PERFECT! They are 10/11 yr olds, they aren’t emigrating to Australia, they are just leaving primary school!

Christ I can’t wait for them to all F@*k off in July!

I have been through it twice and have it still to do twice again 🤪

My daughter has just finished secondary school and is going to the US for university. I joined a Facebook group for people who have children finishing High School in 2025.
It is bizarre.

There are people who spent thousands of dollars on parties.
Lots of people upset that not enough people came to their parties
Questions about how to get your child to write thank you letters
Photos of incredible amounts of plastic tat used for decorations
Questions about what to do with all the signs they have made to celebrate their child.

What I’ve realised is that most of the mums in DS class have plenty of money and the rest of us are only trying to keep up so as not to disappoint our kids totally tone deaf

I know what you mean op. A group of mums at ours organised a limo to take them to the disco thing - which was followed by outrage from some of the girls not included. Luckily as I had a DS and not a DD we weren’t involved in that drama.
I do sometimes think some of the mums must have had very little else going on in their lives. But agree that the mute button is your friend!

Mute the group (for 8 hours) is my advice. That way, if something interesting does crop up, you can read it at your leisure.

I just wish the mums were honest and said it was for their Instagram.

None of the kids are interested in balloon arches, table confetti and stretch limos.

Yep, mute all the way. I do not miss Primary at all for this! DS finished primary last year, I had this same problem. The party organised outside of school, by a handful of mums, definitely felt more organised for the parents than the children themselves,... (most of whom were really ready for a change and to meet new friends).

We had this. It was next level insanity. Absolutely batshit.
Like they were organising the oscars. Props, red carpets, gold rails, photo booths, about 20 other things.
It was a 2 hour disco in the school hall.
I dont even think the kids even cared, had to bribe my son even to go he wasnt even bothered 😂

Yes just mute the group. Many WhatsApp groups are like this. It doesn't mean they have too much time on their hands, they just clearly aren't your tribe.

A school local to me charged each student £500 last year ... this included a hoody, a trip on an open top bus from school around the local area, and a 3 course dinner at a local hotel. I couldn't believe it.

My friend had twins there ... they didn't go!

State school as well, not private.

I hate when other countries do things differently to the UK and have their own culture. It's such a shame, they always manage to get it wrong.

Still, it's a bit ironic to moan about parental involvement when you've joined a group for your adult daughter. She's an adult. The rest of us managed to travel and move continents without our parents joining FB groups to "help" us.

OMG £500!! Madness.

I'm on our y6 leavers committee. My mates are on it so I drink wine and offer what help I can. The group started in January as that's when we needed to reserve the church hall. The schools all finish on the same date and so it's nice to get the closest easiest venue on the right date.

We are charging £10. Someone with a balloon business donated the balloon arch. No limos.

No one paid when we asked for deposit and then there's been some attitude about being chased to pay.

Next thing will be all the people who dump their kids on us like we are babysitters and supervisors. The invitation clearly states you can't leave your child.

Be glad Someone is organising something nice for your dc to attend.

Ours has included a post SATs night out and a leavers disco!

I am not sentimental and always just encourage my DC to look forward to the next chapter but some parents seem to act like it’s a bereavement that their DC is leaving primary.

Sorry but where did I say I joined it to help my child. I joined it to get information from parents in a similar group.

For reference my daughter
applied for university on her own
negotiated financial aid on her own
applied for her visa on her own
booked her flights on her own

Everything I have commented on as being odd in that group has been commented on by other members of that group.
For most of them spending $4000 on a party for an 18 year old is seen as bizarre.

I ended up being on the group to organise the leavers stuff last year for my dc2. It did have the potential to be painful, thankfully we’d got a couple of mums involved who had arranged events before who just got on with it. We did start organising in January as well, but that was confirming the date with the school, the budget the PTA was giving us (kids/families were not charged for the disco, it was funded out of PTA fund raising and then anyone who wanted to give a donation could do, but everyone gets to go without being asked to buy a ticket), booking a dj, booking a Photo Booth thing and then not much got sorted until closer too the event for the disco. There was a flurry of messages about sorting a trip to a cash and carry for drinks /snacks. Mainly because the mum who’d volunteered to do the C&C run had put her back out and we needed to find someone else to help. One mum sorted a balloon arch and a red carpet for them to walk down /pose on for their way in.

The leavers hoodies were a fucking nightmare though. Major mistake, giving colour options. This had been fine with previous years but my year group contained insane people who complained about the choices of colours. The shade of green wasn’t suitable for boys. (It was a leaf green.) The two blue options - navy or a light baby blue - were not enough blue options. Could there be a lighter yellow option as well as the bright yellow option. The red was nice but could there also be a more orange option? More than one placed their order and paid then changed their minds after the order had been placed with the suppliers and didn’t understand why we couldn’t just change it.

In the notes we did the the following year group (we wrote down all the suppliers we used, suggestions of what worked/didn’t work etc for the next year’s parents) we said to offer just one colour (we suggested the school jumper colour) and don’t entertain this nonsense. I have seen some year 6s walking round in leavers hoodies in a selection of colours so they didn’t take that option, hope their cohort of parents were less mental about hoodies.

Urg we have a leavers play, leavers assembly, party & a trip to a skating place oh and the clapping out. I'm pretty sure we just left and that was that!

But what information do you need that can’t be provided by your daughter?

My daughter is leaving on Friday and our school went bowling and for a pizza after a service at Manchester Cathedral that involved other schools. They have hoodies and can have their shirts signed if they want and are having a disco/prom after school on Thursday with parents volunteering to help.