Top 6 Ideas for Primary School Leavers Assemblies

Posted by in childrens songs, primary school songs, Songs for Schools

How to Conduct a Primary School Leavers Assembly that is Fun, Moving and Memorable

Choosing a suitable theme for your primary school leavers assembly can be tough. It should provide leavers with a bank of positive memories and enable them to progress to the next stage with confidence. It should facilitate what can be a rather emotional transition without being too heavy. This post summarises some of the best ideas for primary school leavers assemblies I have found, enabling you to conduct a leavers assembly that is happy yet moving; reflective yet progressive.

Ideas for Primary School Leavers Assemblies

The best ideas for primary school leavers assemblies that I have come across involve a good deal of student participation. After all, the leavers are the stars of the show and they deserve to be the centre of attention. These interactive and drama-related primary school leavers assembly themes will go down a treat.

1.       A Song and Dance

Put on a leavers’ play or musical. Choose a panto for lots of laughs and memories, or a traditional tale with a moral message for a poignant end-of-school show. If your Year 6ers aren’t into their drama, you could put on a more traditional-style leavers assembly with stories about moving on, speeches from teachers and songs composed especially for leavers’ assemblies. I recommend the leavers’ songs in these books, which include the aptly named ‘Leavers’ Song’ together with ‘Every Journey’ and ‘Friendship Forever’.

2.       Happy Memories

Ask each child to prepare a mini script and present or act out something funny and memorable they experienced while at the school, e.g. a sports day, school trip or Christmas play. If they’re not so confident about speaking in public, you could ask teachers to present their memories of the class in a similar fashion. Alternatively, if you have the facility you could get your class to make a short ‘memory film’, leaving the planning, writing, casting, filming and editing up to the class. Play the film at your assembly and hand out copies for leavers to take home.

3.       School Reunion

Get the leavers to pretend that 10 years have passed and they are now at a school reunion discussing their memories. Ask them to act and dress as they think they will in 10 years’ time and talk about what they’re up to ‘these days’. If you like, you could have a ‘photo shoot’ afterwards and get them to write about their future personas so that they can come back to these later in life.

4.       A Night at the Oscars

Put on your school’s very own Oscar Awards, with silly titles (e.g. ‘biggest chatterbox’, ‘class clown’) presented to pupils if they can take this, or to teachers (e.g. ‘biggest health freak’, ‘best on school trips’) if not. Issue certificates to the winners and depending how confident they are, ask them to make acceptance speeches.

5.       TV-Based Leavers Assemblies

You could also base your primary school leavers assembly around a TV programme that most of them are likely to recognise. For example:

  • Teacher’s Got Talent, with the children as judges.
  • I’m a Year 6… Get Me Out of Here! – I’m a Celebrity-themed leavers assembly (minus the jungle, and with rather less distressing challenges). Here’s a ready-made script that just needs to be edited with your school’s own in-jokes.
  • Dr Who – a trip back in time to recall memories from school. There’s a partial script here that contains some wonderful ideas – it just needs expanding and adjusting to suit your school.

6.       Six Years in Photos

If your Year 6 class is a little more subdued and you think one of the above activities would be too much, you could put together a PowerPoint presentation containing photos of the children to show their progression throughout their school years. Play sentimental music in the background and include funny anecdotes, messages from teachers and so on. You could turn the presentation into a booklet and hand out copies for leavers to keep at the end.

 

I hope these ideas for primary school leavers assemblies have given you plenty of inspiration, and that you now feel a little more confident about the whole thing. If you haven’t yet found what you were looking for, try the Transition collection from TES, which has tons of additional ideas that you might find useful. Alternatively, if you want lyrics and/or scripts for primary school leavers songs, plays and musicals, I recommend www.outoftheark.co.uk.