In Year 6, it’s easy to feel like you know everything. You’re at the top of the school and you can show any new or younger student exactly where anything or anyone is.
Of course, you will also have learnt a huge amount by anyone’s standards. From how to read and write, to maths, history and geography. However, there’s more to school than education and what you may not realise is that you’ll have learnt some life-long lessons about yourself too.
Here are just a few examples of the ones we think are really important:
Whether you’re honest
By Year 6 there will have been plenty of opportunities to choose whether to lie or tell the truth about a number of things. From explaining how your new shoes got covered in mud to your mum or giving a reason why you haven’t done your homework to your teacher.
Knowing whether you lie or not sounds like something everyone should be able to do, but actually recognising that you’ve chosen to lie about something can be an important step to consciously deciding whether or not to be honest in the future.
What your skills are
One of the best things about primary school is that by Year 6, you’ll have tried all types of skills and learnt about many different topics. Some will have been extremely interesting and you’ll decide you love and others which you find difficult or boring, which you’ll decide you’re not as keen on.
Knowing what your skills are and accepting that you have strengths and weaknesses is really important. You can consciously choose to work on your weaknesses and to recognise that you will need to spend longer doing homework, or to ask for help if it’s based on maths, if that’s something that you find harder than spelling, for example.
Similarly, knowing your strengths means you can accept you’re good at something and that can give you a boost to keep learning more about it. Sometimes if you’re good at something you really enjoy, you’ll be able to find clubs and activities related to that inside and outside of school so that you can really build on your strengths and further develop the skills you love to use.
Whether you will stand up for yourself and others
In all schools, and even in all workplaces when you grow up to be an adult, there are going to be some people who you just do not get on very well with. Everyone is different, and in some cases, this means that they clash.
Unfortunately, in primary school, some people choose to bully others if they clash – even if sometimes the bullies don’t really know that their words or actions are upsetting someone else.
If you see someone being called nasty names, whether you help or not – perhaps by telling a teacher – can tell you whether you’re brave enough to stand up to bullies and kind enough to look after someone else. Knowing what you would do if this was something that you had to deal with yourself can also give you confidence in facing other difficult conversations or situations with bullies or people you don’t get on with throughout the rest of your life.
A permanent reminder of your last year at primary school
A leavers hoody is a perfect way to have something that you can keep and wear, which will remind you of everything you did and learnt at primary school, by celebrating your Year 6 leavers’ year.
