End of the year is coming, between tours and sports day it has been so busy. It’s the final event of the school year and my class are getting ready for their graduation ceremony next week.
Having spotted a similar post on All Things Primary I decided to share my plan for Graduation with my 6th class.
Note: I cannot claim these as my own original idea. I’ve sought inspiration from other teacher bloggers and Pinterest.
We have a Graduation Mass for the 6th class pupils and their families. As it is just for 6th class it ensures that all pupils are part of the ceremony and sing hymns they have chosen themselves. In the offertory the children present their work, awards and achievements to recognise their work as a class.
Following the ceremony the children and their families return to the school. The class and I will prepare cakes and treats for their families for the ceremony. This allows the pupils to really take ownership of their graduation.
This year we have decided to have an awards/Oscars themed ceremony at school. I don’t agree with personal awards so I have decided to focus on events as a class, funniest memories, favourite school trip, best class performance etc. These awards represent different activities across all 8 years in our school. They decided on the award categories as a group and then suggested nominations for each one independently. I will choose the winners from their answers and with some help from other staff.
One of our categories is Best Video Award as we have had so much fun with the green screen this year. The winning video of this award will actually be a slideshow video of the class throughout the 8 years which I made with Windows Movie Maker.
The children will then be presented with their certificates for completing their Primary School Education.
We will finish the ceremony with some performances of songs from the year. We also have learned an adaptation of the song 7 Years Old. There are lots of versions online to use and adapt to suit your own school such as this one.
On the last day we have our end of year Assembly and my class have chosen to sing The World’s greatest. I have made a simple slideshow of everything they did in 6th class to play for the whole school.
If you have any questions on the above activities or ideas please send me a PM.
A.M.
Aistear Múinteoir 