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School years often seem to fly past if you are a teacher, fitting the academic year into just three busy and fast-paced terms. You and your students will no doubt be ready for a break by the end of the school year, so it’s a good idea to make the annual end of year assembly light-hearted and fun.

Our end of year assembly ideas are sure to inspire you. 

End of year awards ceremony

End of year assemblies can be focused on rewarding students for a successful year. How about an Oscars themed awards ceremony? You could roll out a red carpet (or some red crepe paper, as long as it is fixed down!) and hand out achievement trophies and medals for each class and year group, such as:

• The Good Friend Award

• The Sense of Humour Award

• The Courage Award

• The Aspiring Artist Award

• The Helpful Student Award

• The Award for Kindness

• The Achievement Award

• The Aspiring Author Award

• The Volunteer Award

You can even have an awards ceremony for teachers which the students can vote for and present. How about:

• The Funniest Teacher Award

• The Coolest Classroom Award

• The Environmentally Conscious Award

• The Techy Teacher Award

• The Unsung Hero Teacher Award

• The Teacher Volunteer Award

Leavers’ assembly ideas

School leavers’ assemblies offer a time to share happy memories, while celebrating and encouraging students to move onto the next step of their lives with confidence. It is fine to offer some reflection, but not so much that it becomes too emotional.

For year 6 leavers’ assemblies, consider: 

• The Harry Potter sorting hat

Many children will know and love the Harry Potter books, but even if they don’t, you can explain the concept easily to them. A ‘Sorting Hat’ divides the children at Hogwarts into their school houses. This magical hat describes the character of each child, explaining their strengths, hopes and fears. 

In your leavers’ assembly you can put the hat on each child in turn while someone reads out a complimentary few sentences about that child. The speaker can sit off-stage with a microphone, so that the focus is on the child.

•  A play or musical

A play or a musical can be really enjoyable for both your students and for those watching. If a drama or musical seems like too much work at the end of the year, then a collection of songs and poems about moving on, friendship, growth or time passing works equally well.

• Happy memories

You can ask your students to come up with happy memories of their time in school and those who are confident can read them out.

• Six years in photos

A PowerPoint presentation with photos of the last 6 years will show your students how they have progressed and grown. This is particularly effective if you have sentimental background music - but make sure it isn’t too sad! Consider something like ‘You’ve Got A Friend In Me’ from Toy Story.

You could also print out the presentation to hand out as a keepsake at the end. 

For Year 11 leavers’ assemblies, consider: 

• A talent competition

You could prepare a talent competition in the style of TV shows like The X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent. Your students can act, sing, tell jokes or show a sporting or artistic skill if they want to. Groups of students can work together to create dance routines or play in a band. Make sure that if a student doesn’t want to take to the spotlight that they can be involved in another way - such as on the judging panel, with the decoration, costumes or special effects.

• The 10 year school reunion

You can get the school leavers to imagine that 10 years have passed and hold a ‘10 year school reunion assembly’. You can ask them to dress up as to what they think they will be wearing in 10 years’ time. It would be great fun to do a photo shoot afterwards as the photographs are something they can keep as a memory. 

• A film

This needs advance planning, but you and your students can make a film which captures the best bits of their school life. You can include short interviews with the staff and students about their funniest moments. 

Not only can you show the film at the final assembly, but you can also copy it so that everyone has a copy to keep to remember their school years.