How to Recognize End-of-the-Year Milestones
It’s time to celebrate the end of the school year!
Every student deserves to celebrate the end of the school year, even if it’s not a graduation year. Whether it’s Grade 3 or Grade 10, you don’t have to wait for a graduation year to celebrate the achievements from this past year!
Completing a school year is enough of a reason to celebrate!
The end of the school year is an important milestone for all students; their transition from one grade to the next is always worth celebrating. Even if every grade is not recognized with a graduation celebration, the end of every grade is a time for review and reflection.
Along with discussing the final report card, have a school year wrap-up discussion. This is a meaningful way to celebrate the accomplishments and achievements of the past school year.
Celebrations and Milestones
All cultures have ceremonies to recognize the passage of time and changes in status in people’s lives (coming of age, joining a couple, births, deaths). These ceremonies or rituals are opportunities to reflect and even set goals to accomplish before the next year and are important parts of marking befores and afters in life.
It hasn’t been easy for any age group, but the past couple of years have been the hardest on school-aged children. They are the most social age group—for most children, school is the only life they have outside of the home. They are the group the global pandemic will have the most significant impact on.
Discussing learning and putting the past year’s events into context for students is an integral part of how they will remember these years and how they affected them.
3 Ways to Make This Year Meaningful for Students
- Talk About It. Regardless of what happened this year, having an end-of-school-year discussion. This is an important part of recognizing the work that students put in. Celebrate all their achievements, and put some benchmarks in place for next year.
- Reframe Negatives as Positives. While students may have missed out on many learning opportunities, it’s important to remind them that they survived a unique school year. And they came out the other end!
- Encourage Connection. While students who were still learning remotely might have felt isolated this year. But since restrictions have mostly been lifted, students can begin socializing again!
The School Year Wrap-Up
Some school years tend to fizzle out, but by having a school year, wrap-up conversation can help ensure that your child’s school year ends with a bang.
The school year wrap-up doesn’t have to be a formal discussion. It can and should be a fun and celebratory way to mark the passing of another grade. Consider going out for ice cream together, and while you’re strolling along, you can also discuss your plans to keep the learning going for the summer break
Take Stock Of This Past School Year
So the last day of school has come and gone. Lockers are now empty, school bags are gone away for the season, and report cards are a thing of the past. Now it’s time to take stock of the past school year. Think of it like a yearbook page—an easy way to sum up the grade and make this school year memorable.
Check out these discussion ideas:
- What was your favourite subject learned this past year?
- And what was your least favourite subject this past year?
- Who was your favourite teacher?
- What’s the best project you worked on?
- What’s something you are most proud of?
- What’s the best thing that you read or watched this year?
- What’s the most challenging aspect of this grade?
- Did you make any new friends?
- What’s your favourite school activity?
- What work do you want to save from this school year?
- What tip would you give other students entering the grade you just finished?
The school year wrap-up is also an excellent opportunity to talk about summer learning and make plans to keep the academic momentum going!
Keep Learning Momentum Going All Summer
Now that students have finished another year of classes, keep the learning going all summer long. At Oxford Learning, our summer programs are designed to keep a student’s learning momentum going into the next school year. Learning should never stop at the end of the school year! When children keep their brains active, they overcome summer learning loss.
Summer learning loss can be preventable with summer learning programs that bridge that gap between this year and the next.
Oxford Learning Can Help with Summer Learning
Oxford Learning offers great summer camps and programs for students in every grade. Our summer programs keep kids from falling behind and ensure a stronger start in the fall.
Visit our locations page to find an Oxford Learning center near you.
Related Report Cards Resources
