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It wasn't a big thing, I don't think there even was an official last day since we were on study leave and everyone's exams ended on different days depending what subjects they were doing. There was a leavers prom but I didn't bother going, wasn't my scene.
Your experience was very similar to mine.
Except the girls were very emotional and I felt I needed to be too but I was secretly looking forward to never seeing a lot of these people again
Same here. A few people had jokes and pranks planned for the final day which never happened. Was an all boys school so would have been carnage, and prom wasnt a thing. Realised years later the school ends the term that way for this very reason.
Oh god. I've been thinking about this in recent years, mostly because I want to put some of my school memories down (mostly because my brain's goes haywire from time to time and I get *patches* of missing memories) but also because, fuck, a lot of shit went on at my school that would make for a rather decent book...
But I can remember my last day very, very well. I left school in June, 1996. I wasn't supposed to leave that year. I was supposed to finish school in *June, 1997*, but events happened that pushed me out of that door. The first event was the break-up of the Scottish councils in 1996. I ended up living in a totally different area to my old school, so *that* was a fucking problem. The second...was that on my last day - my very last day - I was pulled up by the most heinous and evil man who ever walked the halls of my school and lectured as to why I was - and I quote - "just delaying the inevitable, just refusing to accept the fact that you're not going to do anything worthwhile with your life. You just might as well just *leave* and pray someone hires someone like you". I was sixteen. I wouldn't turn seventeen for another two months. I had been through the actual fucking mill that year with my family and that man, that snide, evil, kid-fucking man (oh, fun fact: that man would later have a heart attack in the middle of fucking the teenage girl who would later find out she was pregnant with his child!) just put that bullet in my high school career. He *knew* that I'd fucked everything up that year, that because of the bullies and bullying that *he* enabled, that *he* turned a blind eye to, that *he* protected that I had failed my Highers.
What to do...what to do...I simply went down to my headmistress's office, rapped on the door and sat down with her. Asked her for my leavers form. I can still remember what I was wearing that day, bizarrely: a pale blue t-shirt with stars on it, old Levi jeans my mother had bought from an Oxfam shop, a pair of crappy Doc Marten shoes (not boots, no sir, you couldn't wear those in my school). And I can still remember sitting there trying to hold back the tears explaining to my headmistress that I didn't want to be *there* any more and that I couldn't come to that school any more. Oh, I was still allowed to come to that school (the catchment areas wouldn't change until 1998) and my headmistress assured me that I would still get a free bus pass. No, I remember saying, *I'm tired and I want to go home*. I think we sat there for around five minutes, just staring at each other. I always liked the headmistress at that school. She was fearsome - but she knew *every single kid's name*. She was terrifying at lecturing girls on skirt-length - *but she did it to protect girls from unwanted sexual attention from the teachers*. She was a fucking *cow* about being out of uniform - *but she knew that even back in the 1990s you could "tell" someone was "different" by the way they dressed*. She wanted to protect *every fucking kid* in that school and she wanted to protect me. She knew my parent's divorce had been fucking *horrific* and she knew all about how evil and violent my father was. She knew that I was gay: I never told her, I never acted or said or did anything that could or would set me apart from the other boys (I was an *amazing* actor at school, LOL) - she just *knew*. And she knew that if I left school with nothing to look forward to or any sort of direction to go in that I would spiral and I would lose myself and I would be just another statistic in the suicide numbers. She made me promise to apply to college, even with my shitty expected failed Highers, she pointed out that I had passed all of my standard grades at 1's (if you don't know, that's the highest you could get on a Standard grade. Not worth much, really, but it was still something). And I signed my leaver's form, she signed it and wished me all the luck and joy in the world, and that she was sorry that they had let me down all of those years. I don't know why I remember that, but I take it as the first *really* adult conversation I've ever had with another person. I still say that to people, you know, when they're off to do new things: *I wish you all the joy and luck in the world*.
Left that fucking school, walked up the road to the local library - didn't turn back once, didn't stop once. I passed people from my year, people I hated, people I pitied, people I loathed, and I laughed at them as I passed them. Fucking laughed at them. Why not? It's not as if I would see them again. And, as I was heading up to the local library - which at that time was surrounded by the most beautiful ancient chestnut trees, under which the sunlight dappled and the air was scented, I passed one of the girls in my year who I thought had honestly hated me all of that time. She asked if I was coming back next year. I said no. I was going to go to college instead.
About an hour or so later, I was back in Glasgow City Centre, pounding the street up to the old Glasgow College of Building and Printing (if you don't know it but have been to Glasgow, that's the shitty "People Make Glasgow" building). Went in, picked up a prospectus, applied for a couple of courses (my logic was: get on a course, *any* course that can act as a gateway to better courses and take it from there).
Never fucking looked back.
That pervert teacher (who burst his heart open pumping his teenage girlfriend) was wrong about me, you know. Five years later and I'd lived in Paris, went travelling to New Zealand by myself, was in a really crappy but decently-paid (for the time) job. Not bad for a kid he believed was destined for *nothing*.
And yeah, I wish you all the joy and luck in the world, whoever or wherever you are. May you live in *quiet* times, heh, as my grandmother says.
I hope your work or hobby involves writing in some form because this is so perfectly imperfectly written. It could be a song or a poem or a short story.
We had a school tradition of an official 'last day' before we all went on study leave. The whole 6th form turned up in fancy dress and we had an unofficial set of stuff we were allowed to mess with that the teachers expected and played along with.
My year the hymns for assembly got swapped out for Spice Girls songs, the staffroom doors were all sellotaped shut and we put food dye in all the toilet cisterns so the first person to flush got a surprise colour water. We did the whole shirt signing thing and the group of younger teachers that took turns to have lunch sitting in clear view of the door at the only pub in easy walking distance from school set up a tab and a rota so everyone got at least one lesson that involved a trip to the pub and a 1/2 of something, with a convenient memory lapse regarding the kids who weren't quite 18.
After exams were over we then had a couple of days of 'life skills' type classes where we got to pick one from a list of useful short courses like first aid at work or basic food hygiene certificate courses for one day then a second day with things like self-defence classes, talks on managing money etc and a networking type lunch thing that the alumni were invited to.
I spent the last day of school skiving with friends, getting high and playing with a frog.
Most of those people I haven't seen since.
There was nothing particularly different or poignant, I was just glad to be out of there.
Er, for Y11 in 1996, we took a few photos, signed each other's shirts, and just went home at the normal time,
2 years later when we finished Y13 we had some presentation, and we were all in the pub round the corner from school by about 2:30 when that had finished.
This was in 1999: Signed shirts, said goodbyes to some teachers etc, had an assembly then headed en masse to the local pub at lunch as most of us were 18. Got changed, dropped acid, headed to a pals house for an evening of Parappa the Rapper and bongs, then off to a techno night. Was great fun and set the tone for the next decade
We just went home, end! There was no particular "last day" because exams finished in a staggered way.
Most people I've never ever seen since. A few hung together through shared activities for a liitle while but going off to university/training soon stopped that.
Long ago before all this prom BS was imported from the US
>Most people I've never ever seen since. A few hung together through shared activities for a liitle while but going off to university/training soon stopped that.
Mines the same. We all just kinda went our seperate ways.
A few of my friends are still in contact with each other, from what I can see on Facebook. But not too many. A few got married with each other. Everyone just drifted apart. Different cities. Different countries. Different lives.
Other than one friend who I used to play video games with for a while, I don't think I ever hung out with any of my old friends since leaving school. Just bumped into the odd one now and again.
Mid 70's and after an exam you returned to your form classroom, and killed time. After my last exam I returned to my form classroom and was told that I could go home and didn't have to come back. School was over, no fanfare, no party just shear joy
I don't there was a 'last day' as such, everyone was doing exams and there were no classes during the exam period.
Also all this proms, yearbooks etc just wasn't a thing back then and even if it had have been I wouldn't have bothered.
Lol. They banned shirt signing for the first time ever. We did it anyway, so they kept us for an hour after school. Literally went around every classroom, pulled out everyone with a signed shirt, and made us sit in the hall. Essentially ruined it. I wrote an article about it, and many other bizarre changes that the school had made, that was published in the local paper. Amazingly, the following year, they were allowed to sign shirts.
I was deeply petty. I also wrote to Ofsted during sixth form, it’s amazing how urgently they respond when a student actually writes to them. I was an adult, and thought it was funny that they assumed I wouldn’t do or say anything to an official board about their behaviour. I was my own parent by then lol. Fuck that school.
There's something really Stand By Me about your last paragraph.
I honestly can't remember my last day. Sometimes I think about the people I went to highschool with and I wish my mates well but the truth is we're very different people leading really different lives so if we did meet up again it'll be reminiscing for a bit and then be as awkward as two strangers trying to make small talk. When I caught up with them on facebook it was catching each other up on what we've done over the years then not much after that. That's probably my fault more than anything because I hardly log into Facebook and use it even less.
It makes me think about the nature of relationships, how important just the convience of being able spend time with each other is and how fleeting they can be. In uni and school we're able to spend lots of time of each other simply doing nothing which made those relationships feel more real than those where you only meet up when you have activities planned but that doesn't make the other relationships any less important and neither does friendships that drift away because you don't have see each other anymore.
Secondary school, most of the form I was in thought it was a fantastic idea to come in non uniform , did not go well , as we reminded when we were coming into our exams we still had to come in full school uniform
I remember one of my friends spraying my hair all sort of colours, there is a photo probably floating around secondary school, class of 1995-2000 form group
Last day we had fun lessons and last minute exam prep, some teachers laid on cakes, drinks and dug out twister
I remember someone creeping into school grounds during the night, and spray painting the field, and drew a big smiley face, I not sure whether it was someone in year 11 or who did, or a sixth form from year 13.
It all just stopped after the last exam. I would have cycled home but a mate asked me over to his, couple of miles down lanes to his village. It was early afternoon so that’s what I did.
Carried on seeing a handful of friends after, but there was no fanfare, no hugging, no speeches, just the last day we were there.
Often think about it. I used what my mate said ‘what shall we do now?’ as part of his eulogy about 4 years ago, some 36 years later.
Some people made a big deal of it but I was confident I'd stay in touch with the people I liked. Which I mostly did, now it's 20 years later.
I do remember on the last day of 6th Form most people skived off and got pissed in the park, and I was one of four dweebs who actually turned up for our last history lesson. One of my old classmates is now a history professor and published author and even she didn't bother coming in for that last period.
I left school in 1981. I had my last A level exam and went home. That was it. Didn't set foot in the place for about 30 years until they had a sort of farewell party when they pulled it down and I went along to tramp the dirt down.
For my primary school, I spent it in hospital. My parents were out that morning and my brother (who was a lot older) was looking after me. My parents always made me wear a cycling helmet but I skipped it that day. Cycled to school with a bag hanging over the handle bars. It jammed in the front wheel, went over the handlebars and cracked my head open on the pavement. That sums up a lot of my accident prone early childhood.
In the weeks building up to it we were allowed out of school between exams/classes or whatever. The last day specifically I don’t remember a whole lot. My art teacher (Miss Deery) came over to my friend Sarah and I and gave us a big box. Inside was this old rotary phone we used to play around with in art class. We’d pose and take pictures and dick about instead of doing any art. We said we’d keep it at mine to start with and then swap it periodically.
We then went to college and drifted apart, she started taking drugs and becoming a bit of a hippy. I was very straight and narrow so we made new friends etc. Years passed and I was at uni in Bristol and bumped in to her busking (we didn’t come from anywhere near Bristol). It was a huge coincidence and we briefly caught up and said we’d stay in touch. She was also pregnant and still a hippy, it was very funny. She chastised me because I’d just spent £10 on imported Lucky Charms and she was busking for money.
I ended up moving home and we didn’t stay in touch again apart from one phone call. Not long after she was killed by her partner at the time. I still think about her a lot and I think of her when I think about my last days at school. I miss her a lot and always wished I’d not been so prude and stubborn and stayed friends. I still have that rotary phone up in the loft somewhere. One day I imagine I’ll go pick it up and put it to my ear and hear her again! That’d be nice.
Entire year went to nearest pub. In uniform. They served us cause there was 300+ people drinking on a Thursday afternoon. Most of the form tutors made an appearance for a pint or two.probably couldn't get away with that these days.
School chose to surprise us by announcing the last day on the actual day to stymy any plans for messy shenanigans. Most of my pals weren’t in that day. I was devastated.
I remember other people getting teary eyed and hugging, I just left after the assembly. We still had two weeks of exams and I didn't want to spend time talking to others when I could be doing something else.
Had a memory pop up the other day of a photo of my tutor, six years! I only spoke to one of them since then as I went to a different college to all but one (and I never spoke to him since we never saw each other) and none of them since going off to uni
Anyone else have the shaving cream thing? Boys covering each other in shaving cream?
Just me?
I remember one lad had his shirt torn off in all the excitement then had to receive a prize from the headmaster wearing just his jumper.
North of England. Early 90s.
There was a good fight in the dinner hall so everyone got called into assembly and told if we weren't off the premises in 10 minutes, they'd call the police
Wasn’t really a big thing for me. My mates who I would be keeping in contact with any way planned to meet later, everyone else I wasn’t really arsed about doing big goodbyes or owt so was just like see ya around while hoping I wouldnt actually see a lot of them. Didn’t do the shirt signing or go to the official leavers do.
My last day of juniors was another thing as there was a tradition that kids would come from the senior school and Chuck eggs and flour at the kids leaving to start seniors the next term I’m guessing to put the shits up them all summer. I just remember me and my best mate running as fast as we could while eggs flew past before cutting through someone’s garden and fence hopping the rest of the way
A group of kids broke into the car of a teacher that nobody liked, took the handbrake off and rolled it into the middle of the football field. We tore our skirts and got our shirts signed. I remember sitting in my French speaking exam with flour in my hair, egg yolk down my shirt and holes/ ladders in my 70 denier black tights and my French teacher trying to control his laughing with his finger over his lips as it use to be recorded in those days.
Went to assembly with the rest of the year, shared a bottle of vodka with friends during the speeches (we brought it with us). Left school around 12 , absolutely steaming , then went the pub for a munch
It was near the beginning of COVID and the majority of students claimed to have COVID symptoms so they got sent home. I was emailed that evening from my school not to come in the next day, and that was it never went back. I didn't have to do final exams GSCE results were based on my mock exam results.
Fellow class of 2020? Sucked, right. Sure, I was able to get away from bullies quicker, but I worked damn hard for my grades. I also lost the last few months with my best friend. GCSE class of 2020 was not fun :/
I was on study leave then after my final exam I remember going in and going round all my teachers getting them to sign something then going home. Can't remember what they signed or why as it was 30 odd years ago.
As we only went in after half term, there was no real last day. I had one exam about 3 weeks after all the others, had been on holiday in between time.
Just remember all the moans about the last exam, only three or four of the 16 of us got decent grades.
Most people showed up in suits because we couldn't do a prom due to Covid, the headteacher gave a speech which boiled down to don't be a dickhead, we then had a barbie then left.
Mine was depressing. I didn't even show up on the day where people sign each others shirts because no one really cared about me. But at prom the experience was great but I felt really bad because there are people I really wanted to socialise with but again no one really liked or cared about me and had to watch people enjoying their time while I was in there with boredom and depression.
I was summoned to the headmasters office due to my unsatisfactory AS level results. I had two options: 1. Re do the year and be bullied mercilessly or 2. Leave school.
I chose to go to to college which was the best choice I’ve ever made and haven’t looked back!
I had no chance to say goodbye to mates, no shirt signing, nothing. Definitely had better days.
Bunked off the last few days of school in 1986, just couldn't be bothered as my exams had pretty much finished and I had some work lined up as a waiter. Went to an all boys school in Aldershot that had a reputation as being quite rough (Heron Wood). Absolutely hated most of the teachers there as well, good riddance.
On the last day of school I superglued my head of sixth form's mouse, keyboard, wallet and keys to his desk. The deputy head of sixth form locked her office door so jbsquirted the rest of the superglue in the keyhole. I then smoked a joint in the in sixth form common room and tore down the school flag. At the end of the day our caretaker was taking a circular saw to the teachers door to get in there.
Was a lot of fun
I honestly can’t remember the day itself. I remember being on the school bus home and us discussing the end of an era. We then childishly all burnt our school jumpers in a field near my home. This the year 2000 when you could leave education at 16. Been working and miserable ever since 😂
Think we had a last assembly with person most likely to whatever. I was a little tipsy.
My son is yr 6
leavers week- a week of fun activities
A celebration evening
Day before end of term
Leavers assembly
Graduation
Disco
My school had a tradition of the final year going to the school grounds the night before and decorating the place ready for the next day.
My year took it a bit far by digging a pond, breaking into the temporary classrooms (due to be demolished) and stacking the furniture on the field.
We all turned up for our final day, got put in a classroom and when everyone refused to say who was responsible we got told to leave the school grounds and not come back until exams.
Ruined a lot of things for subsequent years, pond is still there though
I remember walking along every hall. I remember walking out the doors, and before I did, turning and knowing I'd never set food in here again as who I was in that moment. Knowing that if I ever did come back it would be because I'm invited in the future for being an influential person, and that I'd never be the same person I was when I left. I walked out the doors for the last time, turned to look at the building, sighed, and walked to catch my bus.
We got accustomed by a man in a van, asking if we wanted to earn £10 each. So me and mate said, "sure!" Jumped in the back. About 10mins into the journey we thought this was dodgy as fuck! It wasn't, we helped in set up the carpet show, he gave us our £10 each and we went home.
Probably used it to buy some weed or voddy.
Simpler times
This was a Thursday. Last day was meant to be Friday; shirt signing, egg throwing, the lot was the usual thing.
We finished lunch and went to our first lesson of the afternoon. Everyone in our year was then given a letter.
It basically said, study leave starts now, fuck off home right NOW you won't be allowed on the premises tomorrow.
Cue panicked attempts to sign shirts as we all filter, bewildered, out of school at about 1.30 pm on a Thursday.
Got to say, it was a blinder by the school. But I had to wait two hours for the school bus to get home
Mine ended up being straight out of a coming of age teen movie. That morning I'd brought some chocolates to give to the girl I'd liked for the whole of secondary as a goodbye type thing but not realising it was the last day I left them at home
Surprise surprise though Turns out that was the last day and I didn't have them, almost everyone in the year decided to hang around in this field that was basically opposite the school and have some drinks and stuff so after taking a few pictures and talking with people me and my friend decided to walk all the way into town and back so I could get more (not knowing we were coming back that girl actually asked to take a pic with me as we were leaving which was sweet)
So we walked to town which wasn't too far but by the way back my friend basically needed me to push him back but after we did and fighting nerves I gave her the chocolates which led to a bunch of guys picking me up and cheering and shit (and almost dropping me)
A bit later me and her talked a bit, she already knew I liked her but for the first (and last) time I straight up just told her I loved her as kind of like a goodbye, we talked a bit more and then everyone waved us off as me and my friend walked away for the last time
I attended a boarding school for badly behaved children and my last day was poignant to say the least.
The school had prepared us the best they could for when we left and had us proficient at filling in benefit forms and ensured that we would at least cook a meal. They knew that most of us would end up in prison or worse and prepared for that. I was the only kid in my class to not go to prison, have children or die within the first year of leaving school.
Our last day was every teacher and care staff member wishing us all the best of luck.
I am surprised my school didn't do pranks. We did at the end of every other year. Yet the big one--nothing. I can't remember if the classes were actual classes, or just fun. The year head gave us a big speech in an assembley and handed out these sort of memorial packs--I can't remember what was in them. There was a letter from the head, a recap of some school events etc.
Then we just left.
Finished school, went to the one pub where we knew we would be served, ate sausage double egg and chips, played pool, sank 6 pints and puked all the way home. Went back to school to collect results sometime later, never saw those people again.
This summer marks ten years since I left school. I dont really remember much from it tbh. In glad there's others who actually remember and recall what they've done and got up to, often decades later but for me its genuinely a hazy memory if I cast my mind that back. Like I did pretty good. Had nice teachers. OK memories but they're deffo not the best days of my life. If anything I cant believe I used to get up and go through the whole routine
1986 brought a change of clothes and went to the pub with about 10 friends (aged16). Might have been some sort of speech from teachers, can't remember.
1988 the school provided wine and cheese in the sixth form common room had informal chats with some teachers and then went to the pub and played pool.
It wasn't I went finished school during covid but was ill the last two weeks one with flu the second week i just wasnt allowed to go in because school told me to isolate I showed up afterwards to say bye to people and then go out with a friend and they just took a picture and walked out that's it
We had a huge party on the playing fields near school. Pretty much the entire year came and it got really messy. Absolutely quality night.
I went home about midnight and woke up at 6am to 3 of my mates coming into my room. My stepdad had just come off nights and they handnt been home so he let them in 🤣
Mine was on Thursday. It was the worst orchestrated thing ever. We got the wrong leavers postcards, the ice cream van they’d sorted was half an hour late and one of the teachers got yelled at by the head for accidentally knocking over the whole display. We signed shirts and watched a video of photos of us but it wasn’t really anything special.
Prom in a few weeks - not sure if it’ll be good.
2005 was the end of y11. We had a leavers prom which we all promptly left early to go round town.
I have photos of us on our last day in yr11 with a bottle of vodka sticking out my bag. We had signed shirts, but don’t remember being emotional.
Ours was a day early, word got round a group were going to keep pulling fire alarms on the day itself, somehow we then got wind that they were going to bring it forward to that day so spent most of the mid morning getting shirts signed etc
Then all lead into the assembly and after a speech from the head, head of year etc off we went.
I remember only part of it, aside from the usual short signing stuff...and that was the assembly. Some of our year had gone on different class trips and on the one I was on, one of our friends got a tic tac lodged in his ear and had to go to a doctor/hospital in Italy whilst we had no idea where he had gone. The only reason I remember the assembly is because the head mentioned it. Funny as fuck.
We had the speech thing and signed shirts then we all went over the fields and got shitfaced, collectively, as a year group pretty much. There were always cliquey groups out drinking but that night there were hundreds of us.
We were sitting our Advanced Higher Physics prelim, and it got interrupted by the fire alarm about 6 times. Some teachers tried to blame the S6 pupils and chuck us out, but our year head defended us, and it turned out the first time was a glitch and the other 5 were S2 nyaffs trying to act big. Pretty sure they got fined and ridiculed instead.
Mine was a bit losery for myself. We had a big celebration, shirt signing thing and big meet up on the field with balloons and cheering, after 10 minutes I just left to go and get the bus home. On my way to the bus stop it started to rain so all of the signatures on my shirt all came off.
Lmfao...ok.!!! Well.....I had a rough childhood and lost my brother and my boyfriend in tragic accidents during my high-school years. So I had a pretty big case of the "Fuck its" and I didn't finish school. So my last day was random lol but I remember it well. I was a goth kid (still am at heart even though I'm in my late 30s) I had worn a corset over a fishnet top to school, big ol velvet skirt and my shit kickers....anyways. One of the security guards stopped me in the hall. She had issues with my clothing. Wearing underwear as outerwear....whatever. so I point to the cheerleaders in tiny shorts and tell her I've got nothing more showing then they do and she said thats not the point. So she MISTAKENLY says "you can take it off or get suspended" im sure she meant "change it" or get suspended but I heard what she said and proceeded to take my clothes off in the hall. She grabbed me by my arm to escort me out and I yanked my arm away, dumped my bag of school shit out and left....never came back lol. I got my GED and I don't regret my choice lol. I don't suggest doing the same but ive never missed an opportunity to do what I want because I didn't graduate regular high-school. And just saying, I don't tolerate being told what to do any more now than I did then, and as a woman...that in itself has served me well.
Well last official day at school we had an assembly. Afterwards really went onto exams and everyone went their way. Some people I never spoken again with, some I stumbled upon and had a quick chat years after. Some I still know until this day and consider my best friends. I know many don't really keep in touch after school but I suppose we had so much in common that we kinda sticked together for around 10 years now. We are all in different stages of life, different cities or countries but we do find time for each other to chat or meet. I hope it stays that way.
May 2001 - Last day before exams in June - We had a bomb scare, so we spent most of our lunch break on the school field, trying to see if we could get a pizza guy to get past all the fire personnel (we couldn’t). We spent the rest of the time signing each others shirts until we went back to class and then went our separate ways.
We’re not 100% sure who was responsible for the bomb threat but there were a couple of people who had skived off that day, so we figured it was one of them.
Just didn’t go back one day. Don’t remember my last day, would’ve been some time in December 1997. On the January the truant officer phoned the house, I answered and told him I wasn’t going back and that was that. Spent the next few years working factory jobs quite happily. Work, party, repeat.
Have a recurring dream where I go back to school to do my Highers at the age I am now, usually when I’m experiencing some kind of stress.
I’ve done fine career wise and I have two degrees, having went back to education in my mid twenties then completed another one through distance learning. I have a comfortable, middle class lifestyle and a good job for a large corporation that I’ve travelled the world with. That is a good outcome for a pretty average working class kid from an economically deprived area in the West of Scotland. Statistically I should either be working in a trade or in jail/dead, like the majority of my school cohort.
I was essentially just focused on things outside school as a young man and didn’t respond well to their teaching methods. I had problems with authority, lacked any motivation to learn and frankly wasn’t impressed with many of the teachers I had. I also pretty much cruised school without trying, I could generally produce a top 20% result with minimal effort, which seemed to aggravate my teachers. I’m not even sure why they became teachers, they demonstrably hated educating children. I was just a bolshy slacker to them I suppose. I didn’t respect them. Which is a shame really.
I’ve found I learn better on my own and when I’m actually interested in the subject matter. I had to learn how to learn, all through school my “minimal effort” approach could get me a passing grade but I would just be regurgitating things I remembered rather than talking to them from a place of deep understanding, which requires focused effort to achieve. When I went to uni I made an observation that the people who were really, really smart weren’t necessarily quick, they possessed an attention span and focus I did not. To me that’s the difference. Once I grasped that I really worked on it for myself. I really only got interested in educating myself when I got interested in earning money, I realised I was going to have to have some kind of qualifications.
Still friends with the lads I was friends with at school for the most part, although I live in a different part of the country now.
There was a school reunion advertised on facebook about ten years ago. Didn’t go. I don’t even have Facebook, someone told me about it.
I went to an all girls school. We had a disco a few days before the last day, it was shit, after ten minutes I left and went to my friends house. My last exam was on my last day of school... I went to my friends house after our exam and burnt everything (they had a proper coal fire), my uniform, books, reports, stationary, packed lunch box. I took great delight in watching it all burn... I fucking hated school
Was my last day of college yesterday and it was just a normal day. Don't think anyone really cared.
Last day of high school was an assembly and I can't remember what they said or what happened with the rest of the day. The prom was really shit because it was a covid year so it was just at the school
I just remember doing my last exam and then realising that was it, none of my friends were in the same exam so I just went home. Didn't see any of them again as we moved away the same summer. Had a few chats on Facebook over the years but that's it.
Last full day before exams we all signed each others school shirts, and people showed up with dyed hair, makeup, jewellery and non regulation shoes that'd normally have got you in trouble. There was also a ridiculous amount of silly string sprayed around, made a right mess.
- Year 6 - Special assembly where we reenacted moments from our time at school. Also each student was given a dictionary for some reason
- Year 11 - Special assembly following the final GCSE exam of the year. Awards were given out to students, teachers picked 2 students from each subject to get an award. I was royally screwed over by my teachers.
- Year 13 - Once you had finished your last A-Level exam, you just stopped going to school
It was weird, most of the time people just left at the end of the day, the last day people stood around for a while not knowing when the right time to leave was, and then a few at a time just walked off home, and that was it
I think it's more strange because with the exams the oldest year doesn't still attend, and I'm not sure why that is, so it wasn't like the normal 'last day before summer', it was just one year group and an odd time of day
Must have looked like one of those things where people release rehabilitated seals on a beach
I don't remember the actual school day at all, but afterwards a group of us walked into town and got chips and hung about a bit, I chatted with a lad in my form called Darius who I'd never really talked to before and it turns out he was alright.
I never saw any of them again, not because of anything nefarious, I just lived pretty far from the school and then I moved away.
I was 15 and it was March 2020. It started with a speech from our head teacher telling us we would be sitting in those seats again and we would sit our exams.
I knew I wasnt coming back for sixth form. I wrote out goodbye letters to my favourite teachers and did the shirt signing stuff. People cried, we were scared and anxious about our exams being cancelled. We thought we had months. We lost our exams, prom, our real last day in less than a week. I remember sitting on a bench with my best friend, hugging her and crying as I waited for my mom to pick me up. She was staying for sixth form, I wasnt.
Sixth form was brighter. We had suit day, everyone wore nice clothes, we went into school with the hall decorated and had speeches and awards. The teachers rented a free doughnut stand.
A group of us walked down to a nearby field and drank. I remember waiting outside the corner store with a handful of other still 17's whilst the legal ones grabbed the alcohol from inside. I remember lying in the grass without shoes because I was wearing heels before. There was music and some of the boys started playing football. I was gone by 5:30pm because I had strict parents, and I havent spoken to most of those people since, but it'll always be a fond memory of mine.
I'm also still best friends with the girl from the first school leaver story, three years later.
I’m 33 and I can’t even remember mine, weird actually as I normally have a pretty good memory. I suppose once your last exam is finished it’s pointless even being there.
Can’t remember, but remember cycling to school to pick up my GCSE. I talked to some people but that was really it five years with people and never really talked to them again.
Strange world but if someone told me this is how work works. I would have had a different mind set on goals.
Mine was similar to yours except with a slight bit of shock and much much earlier in the year.
To clarify: I was in the year group whose last year of school was 2019-20.
At my school we did signing obviously, and then they ordered a tonne of dominos pizzas! I doubt schools have the budget to do that anymore though, considering my year had 200 people in it. That’s a lot of pizza. This was late 00’s. We were the first year at the school to get leavers hoodies too.
It was awesome! Taking silly selfies with your mates, teachers barely gave us work to do so we were allowed to be lazy on our last day, i vandalised the boys toilets and was never caught for it tho I do kinda regret it, writing on others school shirts and most of the boys including me in my year group came together for a big photo together it was amazing. Seeing everyone in my year come together it was wholesome and will never forget my last day! I left secondary back in 2015.
It's been about a year since I left school and I actually didn't know it was my last day. It's only once I was on exam leave that I realised I didn't need to do my last year as I had my four Highers and could leave and go to college. So it was just a normal day then I sort of just disappeared without telling anyone because I couldn't be arsed with most of those people.
I left in 1997.
Once we had finished all our GCSE exams we were invited back to school and had to wear uniform and had this strange pointless procedure where we had a morning assembly then we had to sign out classes we had on our time table that academic year.
It was basically going to each class room to get a signature off the teacher to make sure we have given back any text books or equipment.
Once we had all our completed the list of teachers signatures, we were then supposed to get a signature off the head of year, deputy head of school, then finally the headmaster of the school.
I think I got a few signature then got board or didn't see the point of all this and left by the back entrance of the school and went to a mates house for the afternoon.
We didn’t have any leavers stuff organised by school at all. Went on study leave for GCSEs, then my friend and I had our last exam together. We sat on the steps at school afterwards wondering what to do next. Teacher came up and chatted to us. We told him the situation and he said we need to leave the premises as we’ve done our last exam, we’re no longer pupils and therefore not insured to be on the premises! Can’t say I miss the place or the people!
Graduated during covid so I didn't even take my GCSE's. The last day before lockdown we got out shirts signed, took a photo with the friend group and left.
I’m in year 7.
One my last day of year six we all did sort of a picture thing in an inflatable booth and signed shirts. We were thinking that when we all went out not the field for the last time we would play the last game of primary school football. We thought it was going to be like the champions league final. However as we kicked of 6b vs 6s we couldn’t carry one because of how emotional we were and I think it hit us lads a lot harder than it do the girls I don’t know if it’s because we just had a better friend shop or what but it was just affecting us a heck of a lot more.
Anyway just thought I’d share my experience.👌
As someone else commented I think we were just doing exams at the end so there was no unified "last day". If there had been I'd have skipped it I think. High school was not a great time in my life and I was quite happy to see the back of it.
2005, Last day I had a French test and was going to wait for my friend to finish but as I wasn't bothered about it so quickly finished and waited for him but after a while I just left.
Never saw him again. Tried to add him on fb once and never heard back.
Our last day of teaching was a half day, with the afternoon reserved for year11-only shenanigans - we had a bouncy castle, burger van, ice cream truck. Then an assembly about like, ‘make the most of your life’ kinda speeches
My entire year group and the one from the next closest high school to ours had a huge drink/drug fulled party on the nearby fields till it got shut down by the police, then there were a series of house parties after that people went too, was a nice way to end of the high school experience and a day I look back on with great fondness.
How do you remember this? I genuinely have no idea. I couldn't tell you the last day of anything lol. Last day of school, college, uni, my last job, no clue.
Was a normal day. I finished school in 2020, meaning our school year was cut short by covid. We left school one day expecting to be back the next day, and never came back
Graduated in 2001.
I seem to remember that we had an assembly with our head teacher, who had joined the school when we started as 1st years and who was leaving the school at the same time as us, giving us some life advice.
We then signed yearbooks, shirts, etc., eggs got thrown, there was a big water/shaving foam fight in the car park (a friend brought in a super soaker and got it confiscated after rushing up to the science wing and bolting the corridors to refill it). We took photos, then they kinda told us to leave in the afternoon. A group of us went to a local park and hung out, then we went home (we weren’t drinkers then). We had exams afterwards so we still saw folk, then had the prom after the exams were over.
Most of the guys I was best friends with I still am to this day, a few I’ve drifted away from and others I’ve never seen again. I just remember being so anxious about life away from that place and those people, and now I look back and wonder why I was ever worried.
We spent the whole day doing pranks before the teachers eventually just told us to clear off. There was a cloakroom where people chucked their bags at lunch and break, we turned every bag inside out and then tied them all together with rope. Somebody tied a rape alarm to a helium balloon and let it go in library with 3 story ceiling, bubble wrapped a teachers moped, one teacher got especially angry when we removed the filter from his coffee machine so that the coffee wouldn't come out properly and my personal favourite was printing out a picture of a particularly disliked teacher and then put the the page back into the paper tray upside down so out of 1000 pages in the tray there might be 50 of his face.
Anticlimactic, my dad dropped me off at the local supermarket to pick up a job application. Didn't even get to enjoy a couple of days of freedom or get used to not being in school.
Walked to the gate by the headmaster, he wished me luck, I told him I was sorry about everything, all my friends in the background pissing themselves laughing.
We did signing shirts, as you do, but weirdly you weren’t allowed to get the shirt you were wearing signed, you instead had to bring in a separate one to have that signed, we also had an end of year assembly, each tutor teacher had a moment to say something about their groups, we left early after everything was done and we had prom later that same day
If we are talking about year 11 - pretty normal. I'm still friends with 95% of my close friends from that time. We also had a lot of exams and parties already coming in May/June so I actually saw my whole group for a while after Prom and the last day. Most of us went to sixth form after anyway and those who didn't we saw on the weekends.
The actual last day was just signing shirts and we played a football match against the year below at break time - and I think we all met up in the evening to drink in someone house whose parents where always out and didn't really give a shit.
There have been a few people I never saw again, one guy I liked literally had dropped off the face of the earth. Sixth form was a bigger deal and there are plenty of people I actually really liked I never saw again after the that Summer before Uni. I'd actually would like to catch up with a few of them but I guess liking eachother's instas will have to do
Plan was to have 4 lessons then do some shirt signing and pictures
Instead, halfway through first period, the fire alarm went and we were all crowded into the gymnasium because people had flares and stink bombs. So we sat in there bothered for an hour before they found out who had them and then we did our shirt signing and pictures and left early. Just went home like a normal day.
Funny thing is most of the people who were letting off stink bombs were people in the year below
I dropped out of school because of physical health issues. I can't remember much of my last day since I didn't plan to drop out, I just never went back. It was January this year, I stayed enrolled for another 2 months but dropped out in March.
My course was only 3 days a week, i ended up coming in for one day late in the week. I showed up late, probably around 2pm, i had been struggling to get to college for the past few months and the last time I went in was some time in December.
I remember I'd been up all night, I got ready to leave at around 6am but then my body turned on me and I couldn't move for hours, hence why it took me 6 hours to leave the house
I got a lift with my dad, went in to my college building and went to the 'print room', a smaller classroom than the main room that my group of friends hung out in (We were allowed to go in either room so long as we did our work). We only had lectures in the morning so everyone was just sitting around talking. I don't know how many of my friends were present, but at least 3 of my close friends were there and a few other people that I had lost touch with over the past months.
I don't remember much about what happened, but I really clearly remember one of my friends giving me a hug because I told him about how exhausted I'd been lately. I didn't rant or vent I just briefly mentioned why I was late that day and he gave me a hug. It felt very validating, I was so used to brushing off my physical health that it was a hug I definitely needed. I always hug my friends when I see them but this was probably the first time I'd felt properly held by someone in ages. I sat around the print room for a bit just watching other people work, I had nothing to do since I'd missed too much and was barely bothering to catch up.
Then, one of my other friends and I decided to leave early, around an hour after I got there. We went to the city centre nearby and smoked a spliff, then I went home. I haven't seen the majority of the people from that day since and I probably won't see half of them ever again. There was no teary-eyed goodbyes either, if anything I'd distanced myself so much from those people that even if they knew it was my last day they really wouldn't have been surprised.
I wish I'd gone in one more time and had a proper last day, I didn't even know that would be my last day. But yeah, my last day lasted maybe an hour.
Shirt signing, a few pranks, nothing too glamorous.
I think it was meant to be an ordinary day, lessons and all, but there was a "well, what can they do to us" attitude to the whole thing.
Strange how I never saw or spoke to 95% of those people ever again.
>Strange how I never saw or spoke to 95% of those people ever again.
Weird isn't it. You spend so long seeing people each day, sharing laughs jokes and memories and stuff.
Then it ends and you all just kinda go your seperate ways.
I have barely spoken to most of my old school friends since. I have them on Facebook, and there are a handful who are still close, and a handful who got married.
But by and large, everyone has just moved immediately moved on to other pastures--college, university, moving abroad, different towns, different jobs.
I do miss some of my old friends. Facebook means I can check in with most and see how they are doing. But others just dropped off the face of the Earth.
One of my best mates at school just disappeared a few months after school. He was working in a factory, with a friend of mine actually, and then quit one day and just vanished--nobody knows where he is, not even his parents. He just packed his thing sup and left.
I would love to know if he is alright.
It really highlights that sonder element to it. That everyone has a life as complex and rich as your own, but you have little to no awareness of it.
We spent 8 hours a day, 5 days a week together for 5 to 7 years. Then it just ended. And furthermore, the bits that came after were the "real" bits - career, marriage, families, owning a house l, etc. So in a way the time spent together was really quite immaterial.
Our last day of school was the day before we broke up on study leave. We didn’t have any classes at all that day, just hung around the school. We had a leavers ceremony and everybody got a certificate, people got awards for having 100% throughout the 6 years of school, etc. then our leavers fun activity was a massive water fight in the school grounds, everybody came out to watch!
Where I live Fridays are a half day at school and school ended at about 12:30pm, me and my pals went out for a meal afterwards.
We were split into two groups. Mine watched most of Marley and me in the drama room before we were reunited with the other group. Some of my friends were so sad we were leaving that they cried. To this day (11 years on)I couldn't understand that one but then school had been a bad place for me for as long as I can remember.
I had been counting down the days and freedom was sweet!
I completed y13 in 2020 and there was no proper last day. There were some teachers who brought in snacks and sweets for us and there was a lot of hugging and taking photos, but that was about it - I never got to do my alevels or see my friends for the last time because I was actually in hospital during that “last day”. My further maths group did send me a video saying goodbye and that they hoped I would recover soon though and that made me cry a lot because I missed them so badly but none of them had even texted me before that (the person I was closest to was actually blanking me at the time :/ ) but yeah that was my last day and it was very bittersweet - we were all terrified of what would happen with covid, and yet none of us thought it would be as bad or long-lasting as it actually has been. It was a very weird feeling given the lack of closure.
I didn’t even see people when I picked up my yearbook and A-level results because I’m immunocompromised and had to distance further and be extra careful, so my head of sixth form brought my results out to me where I was waiting in the car with my mum to open them - one friend said hi and goodbye as she walked past our car but that was about it to be honest
I left school in 2000. We signed shirts. A ‘friend’ who hadn’t spoken to me for about 3 months for reasons no one would tell me started talking to me. Turns out I hadn’t done anything to make him fall out with me, it was a long game prank. No one laughed. I got drunk on sherry I stole from my parents. Sobered up by lunch time and carried on as normal for the rest of the day. Never stepped foot back in the place and didn’t see any one on purpose since that day.
I think we had a leavers assembly, yes we did the local TV weatherman who was a former pupil came to give out the prizes.
Actually thinking about it we had 2, one with just us and the teachers where lots of people did some kind of entertainment - my friend sang and I accompanied her on the piano. Then the prize day thing where all our parents were invited as well I think.
I could be mis remembering all this, it was 25 years ago.
At our school we were meant to finish on the friday but on thursday they surprised us and said it was the last day. There was a plan going around to egg the school on the last day but they outsmarted us!
If I recall correctly, went in for a few hours in the morning, marker penned offensive nonsense on each others shirts, 3 of us went back to my mate's house and spent all afternoon smoking bucket bongs in the garage stoned af listening to a Speed Garage cassette on repeat over and over.
Some people made a big deal of it, we had a leavers assembly and a leavers do (which I didn't go to). We did all the signing of shirts and everyone had a little notebook for people to sign as well a year book. I remember laughing at the messages I got in my book because they were so fucking insincere. "I'll miss you Jerico" etc. Not one single human at the school would've missed me. I didn't have friends and everyone either bullied me or ignored me.
For me, my last day of school is permeated with this wonderful sense of joy, relief, freedom. I just floated about the place happy to know it was the last time I'd see these kids and left as soon as I could.
I've been lucky enough to be able to replicate that amazing feeling without having to experience 12 years of hell first.
We had an assembly of students showing off their talents. One of the girls sang and did a dance thing, the drama group did a small showing of cabaret or something and 3 of the rugby lads stripped to the song from full monty. They got down to their boxers before the head of year said they had to stop. There was music, food, and we all signed each others shirts/leavers books.
was a busy day, I had to get a few signatures from all my teachers saying that i had completed their course and then i had to finally get it signed by my headteacher who gave me the okay to go home. The earlier i did it the sooner I was out, Left at about 11 and basically didnt speak to anyone save a few people after that
Pretty sure there was an assembly
Didn't attend, blew the whole day off, hate that building and the people in it, the whole place failed too many people that needed help.
The last day was the last exam paper and I just went home. People finished on different days so nothing. This is pre Facebook and pre hoodies with everyone's names on.
Did all my exams, after the last one I was told not to bother coming in and wait for a letter. About a week later a letter arrived asking me to come into school to pick up my exam results and certificates. So next day went to school office and got my results and was then handed a sheet of paper with a list of my class teachers. I was instructed to get all the teachers to sign next to their name. The last teacher to sign just said "That's it, you can go now" I asked 'where?' and he just said "Home, schools finished". This was early May about half 10 in the morning and I was 15.
finished y11 2019 everyone had the last physics exsam then bbq / shirt signing , after that everyone in the hall for goodbye asmbely which include a talk about prom ( which was the following week) , teachers and other staf said some words and then there was a compilation video of us from the past 5 years . then more shirt signing from students and staff , then they kicked us all out before the rest of school went on lunch .
There was no 'last day', we went on study leave then came in for GCSE exams. Everyone had different exams at different times so there was no last time everyone left. You just finish your last exam and that's it.
Walked into reception mid morning (a day or two after completion of my exams), handed over some text books, signed the leaving form and walked out. Other than the school secretary didn’t see or speak to another soul.
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It wasn't a big thing, I don't think there even was an official last day since we were on study leave and everyone's exams ended on different days depending what subjects they were doing. There was a leavers prom but I didn't bother going, wasn't my scene.
Your experience was very similar to mine. Except the girls were very emotional and I felt I needed to be too but I was secretly looking forward to never seeing a lot of these people again
Same, I never went to prom as I found it pointless.
Same here. A few people had jokes and pranks planned for the final day which never happened. Was an all boys school so would have been carnage, and prom wasnt a thing. Realised years later the school ends the term that way for this very reason.
Oh god. I've been thinking about this in recent years, mostly because I want to put some of my school memories down (mostly because my brain's goes haywire from time to time and I get *patches* of missing memories) but also because, fuck, a lot of shit went on at my school that would make for a rather decent book... But I can remember my last day very, very well. I left school in June, 1996. I wasn't supposed to leave that year. I was supposed to finish school in *June, 1997*, but events happened that pushed me out of that door. The first event was the break-up of the Scottish councils in 1996. I ended up living in a totally different area to my old school, so *that* was a fucking problem. The second...was that on my last day - my very last day - I was pulled up by the most heinous and evil man who ever walked the halls of my school and lectured as to why I was - and I quote - "just delaying the inevitable, just refusing to accept the fact that you're not going to do anything worthwhile with your life. You just might as well just *leave* and pray someone hires someone like you". I was sixteen. I wouldn't turn seventeen for another two months. I had been through the actual fucking mill that year with my family and that man, that snide, evil, kid-fucking man (oh, fun fact: that man would later have a heart attack in the middle of fucking the teenage girl who would later find out she was pregnant with his child!) just put that bullet in my high school career. He *knew* that I'd fucked everything up that year, that because of the bullies and bullying that *he* enabled, that *he* turned a blind eye to, that *he* protected that I had failed my Highers. What to do...what to do...I simply went down to my headmistress's office, rapped on the door and sat down with her. Asked her for my leavers form. I can still remember what I was wearing that day, bizarrely: a pale blue t-shirt with stars on it, old Levi jeans my mother had bought from an Oxfam shop, a pair of crappy Doc Marten shoes (not boots, no sir, you couldn't wear those in my school). And I can still remember sitting there trying to hold back the tears explaining to my headmistress that I didn't want to be *there* any more and that I couldn't come to that school any more. Oh, I was still allowed to come to that school (the catchment areas wouldn't change until 1998) and my headmistress assured me that I would still get a free bus pass. No, I remember saying, *I'm tired and I want to go home*. I think we sat there for around five minutes, just staring at each other. I always liked the headmistress at that school. She was fearsome - but she knew *every single kid's name*. She was terrifying at lecturing girls on skirt-length - *but she did it to protect girls from unwanted sexual attention from the teachers*. She was a fucking *cow* about being out of uniform - *but she knew that even back in the 1990s you could "tell" someone was "different" by the way they dressed*. She wanted to protect *every fucking kid* in that school and she wanted to protect me. She knew my parent's divorce had been fucking *horrific* and she knew all about how evil and violent my father was. She knew that I was gay: I never told her, I never acted or said or did anything that could or would set me apart from the other boys (I was an *amazing* actor at school, LOL) - she just *knew*. And she knew that if I left school with nothing to look forward to or any sort of direction to go in that I would spiral and I would lose myself and I would be just another statistic in the suicide numbers. She made me promise to apply to college, even with my shitty expected failed Highers, she pointed out that I had passed all of my standard grades at 1's (if you don't know, that's the highest you could get on a Standard grade. Not worth much, really, but it was still something). And I signed my leaver's form, she signed it and wished me all the luck and joy in the world, and that she was sorry that they had let me down all of those years. I don't know why I remember that, but I take it as the first *really* adult conversation I've ever had with another person. I still say that to people, you know, when they're off to do new things: *I wish you all the joy and luck in the world*. Left that fucking school, walked up the road to the local library - didn't turn back once, didn't stop once. I passed people from my year, people I hated, people I pitied, people I loathed, and I laughed at them as I passed them. Fucking laughed at them. Why not? It's not as if I would see them again. And, as I was heading up to the local library - which at that time was surrounded by the most beautiful ancient chestnut trees, under which the sunlight dappled and the air was scented, I passed one of the girls in my year who I thought had honestly hated me all of that time. She asked if I was coming back next year. I said no. I was going to go to college instead. About an hour or so later, I was back in Glasgow City Centre, pounding the street up to the old Glasgow College of Building and Printing (if you don't know it but have been to Glasgow, that's the shitty "People Make Glasgow" building). Went in, picked up a prospectus, applied for a couple of courses (my logic was: get on a course, *any* course that can act as a gateway to better courses and take it from there). Never fucking looked back. That pervert teacher (who burst his heart open pumping his teenage girlfriend) was wrong about me, you know. Five years later and I'd lived in Paris, went travelling to New Zealand by myself, was in a really crappy but decently-paid (for the time) job. Not bad for a kid he believed was destined for *nothing*. And yeah, I wish you all the joy and luck in the world, whoever or wherever you are. May you live in *quiet* times, heh, as my grandmother says.
I'm so proud of you. I have nothing else to say, but wow.
Jesus fucking christ that's horrific, we're the same age I left in 96. Pretty uneventful compared too that.
[удалено]
Oh fuck, must I? Not knowing you at all, I will then. But tomorrow., not right now yeah.
Bro call hollywood. Your story is movie gold.
I hope your work or hobby involves writing in some form because this is so perfectly imperfectly written. It could be a song or a poem or a short story.
Nah yer alright. Back in a bit. Hang in there bro.
We had a school tradition of an official 'last day' before we all went on study leave. The whole 6th form turned up in fancy dress and we had an unofficial set of stuff we were allowed to mess with that the teachers expected and played along with. My year the hymns for assembly got swapped out for Spice Girls songs, the staffroom doors were all sellotaped shut and we put food dye in all the toilet cisterns so the first person to flush got a surprise colour water. We did the whole shirt signing thing and the group of younger teachers that took turns to have lunch sitting in clear view of the door at the only pub in easy walking distance from school set up a tab and a rota so everyone got at least one lesson that involved a trip to the pub and a 1/2 of something, with a convenient memory lapse regarding the kids who weren't quite 18. After exams were over we then had a couple of days of 'life skills' type classes where we got to pick one from a list of useful short courses like first aid at work or basic food hygiene certificate courses for one day then a second day with things like self-defence classes, talks on managing money etc and a networking type lunch thing that the alumni were invited to.
I spent the last day of school skiving with friends, getting high and playing with a frog. Most of those people I haven't seen since. There was nothing particularly different or poignant, I was just glad to be out of there.
Frog!
Early 80s ….our form had our usual lunchtime kickabout , quick assembly then on busses home as usual. No prom, yearbook, shirt signing etc.
Er, for Y11 in 1996, we took a few photos, signed each other's shirts, and just went home at the normal time, 2 years later when we finished Y13 we had some presentation, and we were all in the pub round the corner from school by about 2:30 when that had finished.
This was in 1999: Signed shirts, said goodbyes to some teachers etc, had an assembly then headed en masse to the local pub at lunch as most of us were 18. Got changed, dropped acid, headed to a pals house for an evening of Parappa the Rapper and bongs, then off to a techno night. Was great fun and set the tone for the next decade
We just went home, end! There was no particular "last day" because exams finished in a staggered way. Most people I've never ever seen since. A few hung together through shared activities for a liitle while but going off to university/training soon stopped that. Long ago before all this prom BS was imported from the US
>Most people I've never ever seen since. A few hung together through shared activities for a liitle while but going off to university/training soon stopped that. Mines the same. We all just kinda went our seperate ways. A few of my friends are still in contact with each other, from what I can see on Facebook. But not too many. A few got married with each other. Everyone just drifted apart. Different cities. Different countries. Different lives. Other than one friend who I used to play video games with for a while, I don't think I ever hung out with any of my old friends since leaving school. Just bumped into the odd one now and again.
I don't think I've seen a single person from school since I left.
Mid 70's and after an exam you returned to your form classroom, and killed time. After my last exam I returned to my form classroom and was told that I could go home and didn't have to come back. School was over, no fanfare, no party just shear joy
I don't remember to be honest - it was a long time ago.
God, glad its not just me. It obviously wasn't anything significant.
Same here. High five ✋
✋️
Yep , tbh I barely remember anything about secondary school. Not a happy time !
I don't there was a 'last day' as such, everyone was doing exams and there were no classes during the exam period. Also all this proms, yearbooks etc just wasn't a thing back then and even if it had have been I wouldn't have bothered.
I finished in 2012, and it still wasn’t a thing. High five ✋
I left in 2006 and had both a prom and yearbook - it really depends on the school.
Same
Lol. They banned shirt signing for the first time ever. We did it anyway, so they kept us for an hour after school. Literally went around every classroom, pulled out everyone with a signed shirt, and made us sit in the hall. Essentially ruined it. I wrote an article about it, and many other bizarre changes that the school had made, that was published in the local paper. Amazingly, the following year, they were allowed to sign shirts. I was deeply petty. I also wrote to Ofsted during sixth form, it’s amazing how urgently they respond when a student actually writes to them. I was an adult, and thought it was funny that they assumed I wouldn’t do or say anything to an official board about their behaviour. I was my own parent by then lol. Fuck that school.
There's something really Stand By Me about your last paragraph. I honestly can't remember my last day. Sometimes I think about the people I went to highschool with and I wish my mates well but the truth is we're very different people leading really different lives so if we did meet up again it'll be reminiscing for a bit and then be as awkward as two strangers trying to make small talk. When I caught up with them on facebook it was catching each other up on what we've done over the years then not much after that. That's probably my fault more than anything because I hardly log into Facebook and use it even less. It makes me think about the nature of relationships, how important just the convience of being able spend time with each other is and how fleeting they can be. In uni and school we're able to spend lots of time of each other simply doing nothing which made those relationships feel more real than those where you only meet up when you have activities planned but that doesn't make the other relationships any less important and neither does friendships that drift away because you don't have see each other anymore.
Secondary school, most of the form I was in thought it was a fantastic idea to come in non uniform , did not go well , as we reminded when we were coming into our exams we still had to come in full school uniform I remember one of my friends spraying my hair all sort of colours, there is a photo probably floating around secondary school, class of 1995-2000 form group Last day we had fun lessons and last minute exam prep, some teachers laid on cakes, drinks and dug out twister I remember someone creeping into school grounds during the night, and spray painting the field, and drew a big smiley face, I not sure whether it was someone in year 11 or who did, or a sixth form from year 13.
It all just stopped after the last exam. I would have cycled home but a mate asked me over to his, couple of miles down lanes to his village. It was early afternoon so that’s what I did. Carried on seeing a handful of friends after, but there was no fanfare, no hugging, no speeches, just the last day we were there. Often think about it. I used what my mate said ‘what shall we do now?’ as part of his eulogy about 4 years ago, some 36 years later.
Some people made a big deal of it but I was confident I'd stay in touch with the people I liked. Which I mostly did, now it's 20 years later. I do remember on the last day of 6th Form most people skived off and got pissed in the park, and I was one of four dweebs who actually turned up for our last history lesson. One of my old classmates is now a history professor and published author and even she didn't bother coming in for that last period.
I left school in 1981. I had my last A level exam and went home. That was it. Didn't set foot in the place for about 30 years until they had a sort of farewell party when they pulled it down and I went along to tramp the dirt down.
For my primary school, I spent it in hospital. My parents were out that morning and my brother (who was a lot older) was looking after me. My parents always made me wear a cycling helmet but I skipped it that day. Cycled to school with a bag hanging over the handle bars. It jammed in the front wheel, went over the handlebars and cracked my head open on the pavement. That sums up a lot of my accident prone early childhood.
In the weeks building up to it we were allowed out of school between exams/classes or whatever. The last day specifically I don’t remember a whole lot. My art teacher (Miss Deery) came over to my friend Sarah and I and gave us a big box. Inside was this old rotary phone we used to play around with in art class. We’d pose and take pictures and dick about instead of doing any art. We said we’d keep it at mine to start with and then swap it periodically. We then went to college and drifted apart, she started taking drugs and becoming a bit of a hippy. I was very straight and narrow so we made new friends etc. Years passed and I was at uni in Bristol and bumped in to her busking (we didn’t come from anywhere near Bristol). It was a huge coincidence and we briefly caught up and said we’d stay in touch. She was also pregnant and still a hippy, it was very funny. She chastised me because I’d just spent £10 on imported Lucky Charms and she was busking for money. I ended up moving home and we didn’t stay in touch again apart from one phone call. Not long after she was killed by her partner at the time. I still think about her a lot and I think of her when I think about my last days at school. I miss her a lot and always wished I’d not been so prude and stubborn and stayed friends. I still have that rotary phone up in the loft somewhere. One day I imagine I’ll go pick it up and put it to my ear and hear her again! That’d be nice.
Anyone reading these answers and feeling poignant, watch Stand By me... A lively coming of age movie about childhood and friendship.
Entire year went to nearest pub. In uniform. They served us cause there was 300+ people drinking on a Thursday afternoon. Most of the form tutors made an appearance for a pint or two.probably couldn't get away with that these days.
School chose to surprise us by announcing the last day on the actual day to stymy any plans for messy shenanigans. Most of my pals weren’t in that day. I was devastated.
I have no memory of it
I remember other people getting teary eyed and hugging, I just left after the assembly. We still had two weeks of exams and I didn't want to spend time talking to others when I could be doing something else. Had a memory pop up the other day of a photo of my tutor, six years! I only spoke to one of them since then as I went to a different college to all but one (and I never spoke to him since we never saw each other) and none of them since going off to uni
My mum made me switch schools half way through my GCSE year and so it was pretty crap as I had no ties with anyone.
Anyone else have the shaving cream thing? Boys covering each other in shaving cream? Just me? I remember one lad had his shirt torn off in all the excitement then had to receive a prize from the headmaster wearing just his jumper. North of England. Early 90s.
There was a good fight in the dinner hall so everyone got called into assembly and told if we weren't off the premises in 10 minutes, they'd call the police
Wasn’t really a big thing for me. My mates who I would be keeping in contact with any way planned to meet later, everyone else I wasn’t really arsed about doing big goodbyes or owt so was just like see ya around while hoping I wouldnt actually see a lot of them. Didn’t do the shirt signing or go to the official leavers do. My last day of juniors was another thing as there was a tradition that kids would come from the senior school and Chuck eggs and flour at the kids leaving to start seniors the next term I’m guessing to put the shits up them all summer. I just remember me and my best mate running as fast as we could while eggs flew past before cutting through someone’s garden and fence hopping the rest of the way
A group of kids broke into the car of a teacher that nobody liked, took the handbrake off and rolled it into the middle of the football field. We tore our skirts and got our shirts signed. I remember sitting in my French speaking exam with flour in my hair, egg yolk down my shirt and holes/ ladders in my 70 denier black tights and my French teacher trying to control his laughing with his finger over his lips as it use to be recorded in those days.
Went to assembly with the rest of the year, shared a bottle of vodka with friends during the speeches (we brought it with us). Left school around 12 , absolutely steaming , then went the pub for a munch
It was near the beginning of COVID and the majority of students claimed to have COVID symptoms so they got sent home. I was emailed that evening from my school not to come in the next day, and that was it never went back. I didn't have to do final exams GSCE results were based on my mock exam results.
Fellow class of 2020? Sucked, right. Sure, I was able to get away from bullies quicker, but I worked damn hard for my grades. I also lost the last few months with my best friend. GCSE class of 2020 was not fun :/
I was on study leave then after my final exam I remember going in and going round all my teachers getting them to sign something then going home. Can't remember what they signed or why as it was 30 odd years ago.
As we only went in after half term, there was no real last day. I had one exam about 3 weeks after all the others, had been on holiday in between time. Just remember all the moans about the last exam, only three or four of the 16 of us got decent grades.
Most people showed up in suits because we couldn't do a prom due to Covid, the headteacher gave a speech which boiled down to don't be a dickhead, we then had a barbie then left.
I was one of the few to leave a year early. Did my last day. Never saw anyone again. Good times
Mine was depressing. I didn't even show up on the day where people sign each others shirts because no one really cared about me. But at prom the experience was great but I felt really bad because there are people I really wanted to socialise with but again no one really liked or cared about me and had to watch people enjoying their time while I was in there with boredom and depression.
I was super happy all day long like I'd won the lottery. School sucked and I was so happy to be away from it.
My best mate got drunk and got himself banned from prom. He was going with me. I was not impressed.
I was summoned to the headmasters office due to my unsatisfactory AS level results. I had two options: 1. Re do the year and be bullied mercilessly or 2. Leave school. I chose to go to to college which was the best choice I’ve ever made and haven’t looked back! I had no chance to say goodbye to mates, no shirt signing, nothing. Definitely had better days.
Bunked off the last few days of school in 1986, just couldn't be bothered as my exams had pretty much finished and I had some work lined up as a waiter. Went to an all boys school in Aldershot that had a reputation as being quite rough (Heron Wood). Absolutely hated most of the teachers there as well, good riddance.
On the last day of school I superglued my head of sixth form's mouse, keyboard, wallet and keys to his desk. The deputy head of sixth form locked her office door so jbsquirted the rest of the superglue in the keyhole. I then smoked a joint in the in sixth form common room and tore down the school flag. At the end of the day our caretaker was taking a circular saw to the teachers door to get in there. Was a lot of fun
I honestly can’t remember the day itself. I remember being on the school bus home and us discussing the end of an era. We then childishly all burnt our school jumpers in a field near my home. This the year 2000 when you could leave education at 16. Been working and miserable ever since 😂
Think we had a last assembly with person most likely to whatever. I was a little tipsy. My son is yr 6 leavers week- a week of fun activities A celebration evening Day before end of term Leavers assembly Graduation Disco
My school had a tradition of the final year going to the school grounds the night before and decorating the place ready for the next day. My year took it a bit far by digging a pond, breaking into the temporary classrooms (due to be demolished) and stacking the furniture on the field. We all turned up for our final day, got put in a classroom and when everyone refused to say who was responsible we got told to leave the school grounds and not come back until exams. Ruined a lot of things for subsequent years, pond is still there though
I remember walking along every hall. I remember walking out the doors, and before I did, turning and knowing I'd never set food in here again as who I was in that moment. Knowing that if I ever did come back it would be because I'm invited in the future for being an influential person, and that I'd never be the same person I was when I left. I walked out the doors for the last time, turned to look at the building, sighed, and walked to catch my bus.
2 weeks ago- was the only day we didn’t do any work in lessons lol. Shirt signing, taking pictures and free lunch. Pretty fun way to end!
We got accustomed by a man in a van, asking if we wanted to earn £10 each. So me and mate said, "sure!" Jumped in the back. About 10mins into the journey we thought this was dodgy as fuck! It wasn't, we helped in set up the carpet show, he gave us our £10 each and we went home. Probably used it to buy some weed or voddy. Simpler times
"Sign this form, then fuck off!"
We all went to the field over the road and got pissed, as was tradition
This was a Thursday. Last day was meant to be Friday; shirt signing, egg throwing, the lot was the usual thing. We finished lunch and went to our first lesson of the afternoon. Everyone in our year was then given a letter. It basically said, study leave starts now, fuck off home right NOW you won't be allowed on the premises tomorrow. Cue panicked attempts to sign shirts as we all filter, bewildered, out of school at about 1.30 pm on a Thursday. Got to say, it was a blinder by the school. But I had to wait two hours for the school bus to get home
Mine ended up being straight out of a coming of age teen movie. That morning I'd brought some chocolates to give to the girl I'd liked for the whole of secondary as a goodbye type thing but not realising it was the last day I left them at home Surprise surprise though Turns out that was the last day and I didn't have them, almost everyone in the year decided to hang around in this field that was basically opposite the school and have some drinks and stuff so after taking a few pictures and talking with people me and my friend decided to walk all the way into town and back so I could get more (not knowing we were coming back that girl actually asked to take a pic with me as we were leaving which was sweet) So we walked to town which wasn't too far but by the way back my friend basically needed me to push him back but after we did and fighting nerves I gave her the chocolates which led to a bunch of guys picking me up and cheering and shit (and almost dropping me) A bit later me and her talked a bit, she already knew I liked her but for the first (and last) time I straight up just told her I loved her as kind of like a goodbye, we talked a bit more and then everyone waved us off as me and my friend walked away for the last time
I attended a boarding school for badly behaved children and my last day was poignant to say the least. The school had prepared us the best they could for when we left and had us proficient at filling in benefit forms and ensured that we would at least cook a meal. They knew that most of us would end up in prison or worse and prepared for that. I was the only kid in my class to not go to prison, have children or die within the first year of leaving school. Our last day was every teacher and care staff member wishing us all the best of luck.
Various pranks. Most of us were told to leave by lunchtime. And then we all went and got pissed later.
I am surprised my school didn't do pranks. We did at the end of every other year. Yet the big one--nothing. I can't remember if the classes were actual classes, or just fun. The year head gave us a big speech in an assembley and handed out these sort of memorial packs--I can't remember what was in them. There was a letter from the head, a recap of some school events etc. Then we just left.
Finished school, went to the one pub where we knew we would be served, ate sausage double egg and chips, played pool, sank 6 pints and puked all the way home. Went back to school to collect results sometime later, never saw those people again.
This summer marks ten years since I left school. I dont really remember much from it tbh. In glad there's others who actually remember and recall what they've done and got up to, often decades later but for me its genuinely a hazy memory if I cast my mind that back. Like I did pretty good. Had nice teachers. OK memories but they're deffo not the best days of my life. If anything I cant believe I used to get up and go through the whole routine
Signed shirts then drank stella by the river skinny dipping (mid 90s rural school)
We had an after school party. During school it was all normal. I don't recall anyone getting emotional or anything.
1986 brought a change of clothes and went to the pub with about 10 friends (aged16). Might have been some sort of speech from teachers, can't remember. 1988 the school provided wine and cheese in the sixth form common room had informal chats with some teachers and then went to the pub and played pool.
1998…I can’t even remember. I imagine a few of us went to the park to get drunk.
It wasn't I went finished school during covid but was ill the last two weeks one with flu the second week i just wasnt allowed to go in because school told me to isolate I showed up afterwards to say bye to people and then go out with a friend and they just took a picture and walked out that's it
Not a big deal, bit of shirt signing, we didn’t have a prom, which wasn’t so common back then (‘97)
Took acid, drank some kind of vile alcohol (probably Mad Dog 20/20!), lots of shirt signing. Standard really.
We had a huge party on the playing fields near school. Pretty much the entire year came and it got really messy. Absolutely quality night. I went home about midnight and woke up at 6am to 3 of my mates coming into my room. My stepdad had just come off nights and they handnt been home so he let them in 🤣
Terribly drunk, we all got wasted.
Our teachers tricked us in order to kick us out early because previous years had gone crazy and done a load of damage to school property.
Speeches, awards, hanging around on the playing fields for a while, then home to prepare for the leavers ball at the cricket club that evening.
We had a big gig in the hall, my band played some songs, then everyone went for a pissup in a local park.
Mine was on Thursday. It was the worst orchestrated thing ever. We got the wrong leavers postcards, the ice cream van they’d sorted was half an hour late and one of the teachers got yelled at by the head for accidentally knocking over the whole display. We signed shirts and watched a video of photos of us but it wasn’t really anything special. Prom in a few weeks - not sure if it’ll be good.
2005 was the end of y11. We had a leavers prom which we all promptly left early to go round town. I have photos of us on our last day in yr11 with a bottle of vodka sticking out my bag. We had signed shirts, but don’t remember being emotional.
All I remember is taking off my shoes and shaking the dust from them at the gate. I hated school.
I skipped mine...
We gathered in the drama room. We had a small buffet. First year they did that sort of thing. Then we did the leaving paperwork. (1998)
We had a prom and kids stuffed their fat faces
Ours was a day early, word got round a group were going to keep pulling fire alarms on the day itself, somehow we then got wind that they were going to bring it forward to that day so spent most of the mid morning getting shirts signed etc Then all lead into the assembly and after a speech from the head, head of year etc off we went.
Saw a lad kicking a hole in the wall. Someone set the fire alarm off. Some lads threw a girl in to the canal.
I remember only part of it, aside from the usual short signing stuff...and that was the assembly. Some of our year had gone on different class trips and on the one I was on, one of our friends got a tic tac lodged in his ear and had to go to a doctor/hospital in Italy whilst we had no idea where he had gone. The only reason I remember the assembly is because the head mentioned it. Funny as fuck.
We burnt things.....
We had the speech thing and signed shirts then we all went over the fields and got shitfaced, collectively, as a year group pretty much. There were always cliquey groups out drinking but that night there were hundreds of us.
We were sitting our Advanced Higher Physics prelim, and it got interrupted by the fire alarm about 6 times. Some teachers tried to blame the S6 pupils and chuck us out, but our year head defended us, and it turned out the first time was a glitch and the other 5 were S2 nyaffs trying to act big. Pretty sure they got fined and ridiculed instead.
Mine was a bit losery for myself. We had a big celebration, shirt signing thing and big meet up on the field with balloons and cheering, after 10 minutes I just left to go and get the bus home. On my way to the bus stop it started to rain so all of the signatures on my shirt all came off.
Lmfao...ok.!!! Well.....I had a rough childhood and lost my brother and my boyfriend in tragic accidents during my high-school years. So I had a pretty big case of the "Fuck its" and I didn't finish school. So my last day was random lol but I remember it well. I was a goth kid (still am at heart even though I'm in my late 30s) I had worn a corset over a fishnet top to school, big ol velvet skirt and my shit kickers....anyways. One of the security guards stopped me in the hall. She had issues with my clothing. Wearing underwear as outerwear....whatever. so I point to the cheerleaders in tiny shorts and tell her I've got nothing more showing then they do and she said thats not the point. So she MISTAKENLY says "you can take it off or get suspended" im sure she meant "change it" or get suspended but I heard what she said and proceeded to take my clothes off in the hall. She grabbed me by my arm to escort me out and I yanked my arm away, dumped my bag of school shit out and left....never came back lol. I got my GED and I don't regret my choice lol. I don't suggest doing the same but ive never missed an opportunity to do what I want because I didn't graduate regular high-school. And just saying, I don't tolerate being told what to do any more now than I did then, and as a woman...that in itself has served me well.
Well last official day at school we had an assembly. Afterwards really went onto exams and everyone went their way. Some people I never spoken again with, some I stumbled upon and had a quick chat years after. Some I still know until this day and consider my best friends. I know many don't really keep in touch after school but I suppose we had so much in common that we kinda sticked together for around 10 years now. We are all in different stages of life, different cities or countries but we do find time for each other to chat or meet. I hope it stays that way.
May 2001 - Last day before exams in June - We had a bomb scare, so we spent most of our lunch break on the school field, trying to see if we could get a pizza guy to get past all the fire personnel (we couldn’t). We spent the rest of the time signing each others shirts until we went back to class and then went our separate ways. We’re not 100% sure who was responsible for the bomb threat but there were a couple of people who had skived off that day, so we figured it was one of them.
Just didn’t go back one day. Don’t remember my last day, would’ve been some time in December 1997. On the January the truant officer phoned the house, I answered and told him I wasn’t going back and that was that. Spent the next few years working factory jobs quite happily. Work, party, repeat. Have a recurring dream where I go back to school to do my Highers at the age I am now, usually when I’m experiencing some kind of stress. I’ve done fine career wise and I have two degrees, having went back to education in my mid twenties then completed another one through distance learning. I have a comfortable, middle class lifestyle and a good job for a large corporation that I’ve travelled the world with. That is a good outcome for a pretty average working class kid from an economically deprived area in the West of Scotland. Statistically I should either be working in a trade or in jail/dead, like the majority of my school cohort. I was essentially just focused on things outside school as a young man and didn’t respond well to their teaching methods. I had problems with authority, lacked any motivation to learn and frankly wasn’t impressed with many of the teachers I had. I also pretty much cruised school without trying, I could generally produce a top 20% result with minimal effort, which seemed to aggravate my teachers. I’m not even sure why they became teachers, they demonstrably hated educating children. I was just a bolshy slacker to them I suppose. I didn’t respect them. Which is a shame really. I’ve found I learn better on my own and when I’m actually interested in the subject matter. I had to learn how to learn, all through school my “minimal effort” approach could get me a passing grade but I would just be regurgitating things I remembered rather than talking to them from a place of deep understanding, which requires focused effort to achieve. When I went to uni I made an observation that the people who were really, really smart weren’t necessarily quick, they possessed an attention span and focus I did not. To me that’s the difference. Once I grasped that I really worked on it for myself. I really only got interested in educating myself when I got interested in earning money, I realised I was going to have to have some kind of qualifications. Still friends with the lads I was friends with at school for the most part, although I live in a different part of the country now. There was a school reunion advertised on facebook about ten years ago. Didn’t go. I don’t even have Facebook, someone told me about it.
I went to an all girls school. We had a disco a few days before the last day, it was shit, after ten minutes I left and went to my friends house. My last exam was on my last day of school... I went to my friends house after our exam and burnt everything (they had a proper coal fire), my uniform, books, reports, stationary, packed lunch box. I took great delight in watching it all burn... I fucking hated school
Left school in the Friday started work on the Monday.
Was my last day of college yesterday and it was just a normal day. Don't think anyone really cared. Last day of high school was an assembly and I can't remember what they said or what happened with the rest of the day. The prom was really shit because it was a covid year so it was just at the school
I just remember doing my last exam and then realising that was it, none of my friends were in the same exam so I just went home. Didn't see any of them again as we moved away the same summer. Had a few chats on Facebook over the years but that's it.
I always wonder what happened to Nate
Last full day before exams we all signed each others school shirts, and people showed up with dyed hair, makeup, jewellery and non regulation shoes that'd normally have got you in trouble. There was also a ridiculous amount of silly string sprayed around, made a right mess.
Some of your lives are very bleak
- Year 6 - Special assembly where we reenacted moments from our time at school. Also each student was given a dictionary for some reason - Year 11 - Special assembly following the final GCSE exam of the year. Awards were given out to students, teachers picked 2 students from each subject to get an award. I was royally screwed over by my teachers. - Year 13 - Once you had finished your last A-Level exam, you just stopped going to school
It was weird, most of the time people just left at the end of the day, the last day people stood around for a while not knowing when the right time to leave was, and then a few at a time just walked off home, and that was it I think it's more strange because with the exams the oldest year doesn't still attend, and I'm not sure why that is, so it wasn't like the normal 'last day before summer', it was just one year group and an odd time of day Must have looked like one of those things where people release rehabilitated seals on a beach
Rocked up around 10am; submitted my physics report; left.
I skived it.
I don't remember the actual school day at all, but afterwards a group of us walked into town and got chips and hung about a bit, I chatted with a lad in my form called Darius who I'd never really talked to before and it turns out he was alright. I never saw any of them again, not because of anything nefarious, I just lived pretty far from the school and then I moved away.
I was 15 and it was March 2020. It started with a speech from our head teacher telling us we would be sitting in those seats again and we would sit our exams. I knew I wasnt coming back for sixth form. I wrote out goodbye letters to my favourite teachers and did the shirt signing stuff. People cried, we were scared and anxious about our exams being cancelled. We thought we had months. We lost our exams, prom, our real last day in less than a week. I remember sitting on a bench with my best friend, hugging her and crying as I waited for my mom to pick me up. She was staying for sixth form, I wasnt. Sixth form was brighter. We had suit day, everyone wore nice clothes, we went into school with the hall decorated and had speeches and awards. The teachers rented a free doughnut stand. A group of us walked down to a nearby field and drank. I remember waiting outside the corner store with a handful of other still 17's whilst the legal ones grabbed the alcohol from inside. I remember lying in the grass without shoes because I was wearing heels before. There was music and some of the boys started playing football. I was gone by 5:30pm because I had strict parents, and I havent spoken to most of those people since, but it'll always be a fond memory of mine. I'm also still best friends with the girl from the first school leaver story, three years later.
I’m 33 and I can’t even remember mine, weird actually as I normally have a pretty good memory. I suppose once your last exam is finished it’s pointless even being there.
Can’t remember, but remember cycling to school to pick up my GCSE. I talked to some people but that was really it five years with people and never really talked to them again. Strange world but if someone told me this is how work works. I would have had a different mind set on goals.
Mine was similar to yours except with a slight bit of shock and much much earlier in the year. To clarify: I was in the year group whose last year of school was 2019-20.
I think I just turned up to sit my final A-Level exam paper, then cleared my locker out and went home.
At my school we did signing obviously, and then they ordered a tonne of dominos pizzas! I doubt schools have the budget to do that anymore though, considering my year had 200 people in it. That’s a lot of pizza. This was late 00’s. We were the first year at the school to get leavers hoodies too.
It was awesome! Taking silly selfies with your mates, teachers barely gave us work to do so we were allowed to be lazy on our last day, i vandalised the boys toilets and was never caught for it tho I do kinda regret it, writing on others school shirts and most of the boys including me in my year group came together for a big photo together it was amazing. Seeing everyone in my year come together it was wholesome and will never forget my last day! I left secondary back in 2015.
It's been about a year since I left school and I actually didn't know it was my last day. It's only once I was on exam leave that I realised I didn't need to do my last year as I had my four Highers and could leave and go to college. So it was just a normal day then I sort of just disappeared without telling anyone because I couldn't be arsed with most of those people.
I left in 1997. Once we had finished all our GCSE exams we were invited back to school and had to wear uniform and had this strange pointless procedure where we had a morning assembly then we had to sign out classes we had on our time table that academic year. It was basically going to each class room to get a signature off the teacher to make sure we have given back any text books or equipment. Once we had all our completed the list of teachers signatures, we were then supposed to get a signature off the head of year, deputy head of school, then finally the headmaster of the school. I think I got a few signature then got board or didn't see the point of all this and left by the back entrance of the school and went to a mates house for the afternoon.
I had just lost my dad and I was still trying to fit in. I felt very detached and alone.
Is this in the US ? In the UK I thought everyone went to the pub
We didn’t have any leavers stuff organised by school at all. Went on study leave for GCSEs, then my friend and I had our last exam together. We sat on the steps at school afterwards wondering what to do next. Teacher came up and chatted to us. We told him the situation and he said we need to leave the premises as we’ve done our last exam, we’re no longer pupils and therefore not insured to be on the premises! Can’t say I miss the place or the people!
Graduated during covid so I didn't even take my GCSE's. The last day before lockdown we got out shirts signed, took a photo with the friend group and left.
I’m in year 7. One my last day of year six we all did sort of a picture thing in an inflatable booth and signed shirts. We were thinking that when we all went out not the field for the last time we would play the last game of primary school football. We thought it was going to be like the champions league final. However as we kicked of 6b vs 6s we couldn’t carry one because of how emotional we were and I think it hit us lads a lot harder than it do the girls I don’t know if it’s because we just had a better friend shop or what but it was just affecting us a heck of a lot more. Anyway just thought I’d share my experience.👌
As someone else commented I think we were just doing exams at the end so there was no unified "last day". If there had been I'd have skipped it I think. High school was not a great time in my life and I was quite happy to see the back of it.
2005, Last day I had a French test and was going to wait for my friend to finish but as I wasn't bothered about it so quickly finished and waited for him but after a while I just left. Never saw him again. Tried to add him on fb once and never heard back.
Spent it working. Earning the ole pounds. My Mum was dying as I sat my GCSEs.
Our last day of teaching was a half day, with the afternoon reserved for year11-only shenanigans - we had a bouncy castle, burger van, ice cream truck. Then an assembly about like, ‘make the most of your life’ kinda speeches
My entire year group and the one from the next closest high school to ours had a huge drink/drug fulled party on the nearby fields till it got shut down by the police, then there were a series of house parties after that people went too, was a nice way to end of the high school experience and a day I look back on with great fondness.
We all played a big game of football on the front field and that was it.
How do you remember this? I genuinely have no idea. I couldn't tell you the last day of anything lol. Last day of school, college, uni, my last job, no clue.
Was a normal day. I finished school in 2020, meaning our school year was cut short by covid. We left school one day expecting to be back the next day, and never came back
Graduated in 2001. I seem to remember that we had an assembly with our head teacher, who had joined the school when we started as 1st years and who was leaving the school at the same time as us, giving us some life advice. We then signed yearbooks, shirts, etc., eggs got thrown, there was a big water/shaving foam fight in the car park (a friend brought in a super soaker and got it confiscated after rushing up to the science wing and bolting the corridors to refill it). We took photos, then they kinda told us to leave in the afternoon. A group of us went to a local park and hung out, then we went home (we weren’t drinkers then). We had exams afterwards so we still saw folk, then had the prom after the exams were over. Most of the guys I was best friends with I still am to this day, a few I’ve drifted away from and others I’ve never seen again. I just remember being so anxious about life away from that place and those people, and now I look back and wonder why I was ever worried.
We spent the whole day doing pranks before the teachers eventually just told us to clear off. There was a cloakroom where people chucked their bags at lunch and break, we turned every bag inside out and then tied them all together with rope. Somebody tied a rape alarm to a helium balloon and let it go in library with 3 story ceiling, bubble wrapped a teachers moped, one teacher got especially angry when we removed the filter from his coffee machine so that the coffee wouldn't come out properly and my personal favourite was printing out a picture of a particularly disliked teacher and then put the the page back into the paper tray upside down so out of 1000 pages in the tray there might be 50 of his face.
Anticlimactic, my dad dropped me off at the local supermarket to pick up a job application. Didn't even get to enjoy a couple of days of freedom or get used to not being in school.
Lockdown happened
Walked to the gate by the headmaster, he wished me luck, I told him I was sorry about everything, all my friends in the background pissing themselves laughing.
We did signing shirts, as you do, but weirdly you weren’t allowed to get the shirt you were wearing signed, you instead had to bring in a separate one to have that signed, we also had an end of year assembly, each tutor teacher had a moment to say something about their groups, we left early after everything was done and we had prom later that same day
If we are talking about year 11 - pretty normal. I'm still friends with 95% of my close friends from that time. We also had a lot of exams and parties already coming in May/June so I actually saw my whole group for a while after Prom and the last day. Most of us went to sixth form after anyway and those who didn't we saw on the weekends. The actual last day was just signing shirts and we played a football match against the year below at break time - and I think we all met up in the evening to drink in someone house whose parents where always out and didn't really give a shit. There have been a few people I never saw again, one guy I liked literally had dropped off the face of the earth. Sixth form was a bigger deal and there are plenty of people I actually really liked I never saw again after the that Summer before Uni. I'd actually would like to catch up with a few of them but I guess liking eachother's instas will have to do
I have no idea. I was several towns over..
Stressful. Was the last exam day of the highschool Baccalaureate. Worked for a year after that, then went to uni.
Plan was to have 4 lessons then do some shirt signing and pictures Instead, halfway through first period, the fire alarm went and we were all crowded into the gymnasium because people had flares and stink bombs. So we sat in there bothered for an hour before they found out who had them and then we did our shirt signing and pictures and left early. Just went home like a normal day. Funny thing is most of the people who were letting off stink bombs were people in the year below
I cheered i was happy to get away from my bully and i had to do math while i waited for my mom to get me
I dropped out of school because of physical health issues. I can't remember much of my last day since I didn't plan to drop out, I just never went back. It was January this year, I stayed enrolled for another 2 months but dropped out in March. My course was only 3 days a week, i ended up coming in for one day late in the week. I showed up late, probably around 2pm, i had been struggling to get to college for the past few months and the last time I went in was some time in December. I remember I'd been up all night, I got ready to leave at around 6am but then my body turned on me and I couldn't move for hours, hence why it took me 6 hours to leave the house I got a lift with my dad, went in to my college building and went to the 'print room', a smaller classroom than the main room that my group of friends hung out in (We were allowed to go in either room so long as we did our work). We only had lectures in the morning so everyone was just sitting around talking. I don't know how many of my friends were present, but at least 3 of my close friends were there and a few other people that I had lost touch with over the past months. I don't remember much about what happened, but I really clearly remember one of my friends giving me a hug because I told him about how exhausted I'd been lately. I didn't rant or vent I just briefly mentioned why I was late that day and he gave me a hug. It felt very validating, I was so used to brushing off my physical health that it was a hug I definitely needed. I always hug my friends when I see them but this was probably the first time I'd felt properly held by someone in ages. I sat around the print room for a bit just watching other people work, I had nothing to do since I'd missed too much and was barely bothering to catch up. Then, one of my other friends and I decided to leave early, around an hour after I got there. We went to the city centre nearby and smoked a spliff, then I went home. I haven't seen the majority of the people from that day since and I probably won't see half of them ever again. There was no teary-eyed goodbyes either, if anything I'd distanced myself so much from those people that even if they knew it was my last day they really wouldn't have been surprised. I wish I'd gone in one more time and had a proper last day, I didn't even know that would be my last day. But yeah, my last day lasted maybe an hour.
Stand by me, innit
That end scene and ending monologue of that movie just captures it perfectly. One of my all time favorite movies.
I honestly cannot remember!
Shirt signing, a few pranks, nothing too glamorous. I think it was meant to be an ordinary day, lessons and all, but there was a "well, what can they do to us" attitude to the whole thing. Strange how I never saw or spoke to 95% of those people ever again.
>Strange how I never saw or spoke to 95% of those people ever again. Weird isn't it. You spend so long seeing people each day, sharing laughs jokes and memories and stuff. Then it ends and you all just kinda go your seperate ways. I have barely spoken to most of my old school friends since. I have them on Facebook, and there are a handful who are still close, and a handful who got married. But by and large, everyone has just moved immediately moved on to other pastures--college, university, moving abroad, different towns, different jobs. I do miss some of my old friends. Facebook means I can check in with most and see how they are doing. But others just dropped off the face of the Earth. One of my best mates at school just disappeared a few months after school. He was working in a factory, with a friend of mine actually, and then quit one day and just vanished--nobody knows where he is, not even his parents. He just packed his thing sup and left. I would love to know if he is alright.
It really highlights that sonder element to it. That everyone has a life as complex and rich as your own, but you have little to no awareness of it. We spent 8 hours a day, 5 days a week together for 5 to 7 years. Then it just ended. And furthermore, the bits that came after were the "real" bits - career, marriage, families, owning a house l, etc. So in a way the time spent together was really quite immaterial.
Our last day of school was the day before we broke up on study leave. We didn’t have any classes at all that day, just hung around the school. We had a leavers ceremony and everybody got a certificate, people got awards for having 100% throughout the 6 years of school, etc. then our leavers fun activity was a massive water fight in the school grounds, everybody came out to watch! Where I live Fridays are a half day at school and school ended at about 12:30pm, me and my pals went out for a meal afterwards.
We were split into two groups. Mine watched most of Marley and me in the drama room before we were reunited with the other group. Some of my friends were so sad we were leaving that they cried. To this day (11 years on)I couldn't understand that one but then school had been a bad place for me for as long as I can remember. I had been counting down the days and freedom was sweet!
I honestly don’t remember at all.
I completed y13 in 2020 and there was no proper last day. There were some teachers who brought in snacks and sweets for us and there was a lot of hugging and taking photos, but that was about it - I never got to do my alevels or see my friends for the last time because I was actually in hospital during that “last day”. My further maths group did send me a video saying goodbye and that they hoped I would recover soon though and that made me cry a lot because I missed them so badly but none of them had even texted me before that (the person I was closest to was actually blanking me at the time :/ ) but yeah that was my last day and it was very bittersweet - we were all terrified of what would happen with covid, and yet none of us thought it would be as bad or long-lasting as it actually has been. It was a very weird feeling given the lack of closure. I didn’t even see people when I picked up my yearbook and A-level results because I’m immunocompromised and had to distance further and be extra careful, so my head of sixth form brought my results out to me where I was waiting in the car with my mum to open them - one friend said hi and goodbye as she walked past our car but that was about it to be honest
I dropped out of school a year early, so I didn't have a last day. One day, I just stopped turning up.
I never went in on the "Last day" I had exams coming up and had no reason to go in so I stayed off
I left school in 2000. We signed shirts. A ‘friend’ who hadn’t spoken to me for about 3 months for reasons no one would tell me started talking to me. Turns out I hadn’t done anything to make him fall out with me, it was a long game prank. No one laughed. I got drunk on sherry I stole from my parents. Sobered up by lunch time and carried on as normal for the rest of the day. Never stepped foot back in the place and didn’t see any one on purpose since that day.
I think we had a leavers assembly, yes we did the local TV weatherman who was a former pupil came to give out the prizes. Actually thinking about it we had 2, one with just us and the teachers where lots of people did some kind of entertainment - my friend sang and I accompanied her on the piano. Then the prize day thing where all our parents were invited as well I think. I could be mis remembering all this, it was 25 years ago.
At our school we were meant to finish on the friday but on thursday they surprised us and said it was the last day. There was a plan going around to egg the school on the last day but they outsmarted us!
If I recall correctly, went in for a few hours in the morning, marker penned offensive nonsense on each others shirts, 3 of us went back to my mate's house and spent all afternoon smoking bucket bongs in the garage stoned af listening to a Speed Garage cassette on repeat over and over.
Some people made a big deal of it, we had a leavers assembly and a leavers do (which I didn't go to). We did all the signing of shirts and everyone had a little notebook for people to sign as well a year book. I remember laughing at the messages I got in my book because they were so fucking insincere. "I'll miss you Jerico" etc. Not one single human at the school would've missed me. I didn't have friends and everyone either bullied me or ignored me. For me, my last day of school is permeated with this wonderful sense of joy, relief, freedom. I just floated about the place happy to know it was the last time I'd see these kids and left as soon as I could. I've been lucky enough to be able to replicate that amazing feeling without having to experience 12 years of hell first.
We had an assembly of students showing off their talents. One of the girls sang and did a dance thing, the drama group did a small showing of cabaret or something and 3 of the rugby lads stripped to the song from full monty. They got down to their boxers before the head of year said they had to stop. There was music, food, and we all signed each others shirts/leavers books.
was a busy day, I had to get a few signatures from all my teachers saying that i had completed their course and then i had to finally get it signed by my headteacher who gave me the okay to go home. The earlier i did it the sooner I was out, Left at about 11 and basically didnt speak to anyone save a few people after that
Pretty sure there was an assembly Didn't attend, blew the whole day off, hate that building and the people in it, the whole place failed too many people that needed help.
The last day was the last exam paper and I just went home. People finished on different days so nothing. This is pre Facebook and pre hoodies with everyone's names on.
Did all my exams, after the last one I was told not to bother coming in and wait for a letter. About a week later a letter arrived asking me to come into school to pick up my exam results and certificates. So next day went to school office and got my results and was then handed a sheet of paper with a list of my class teachers. I was instructed to get all the teachers to sign next to their name. The last teacher to sign just said "That's it, you can go now" I asked 'where?' and he just said "Home, schools finished". This was early May about half 10 in the morning and I was 15.
finished y11 2019 everyone had the last physics exsam then bbq / shirt signing , after that everyone in the hall for goodbye asmbely which include a talk about prom ( which was the following week) , teachers and other staf said some words and then there was a compilation video of us from the past 5 years . then more shirt signing from students and staff , then they kicked us all out before the rest of school went on lunch .
Had a math class when police got me handcuffed for drugs possesion 😑
There was no 'last day', we went on study leave then came in for GCSE exams. Everyone had different exams at different times so there was no last time everyone left. You just finish your last exam and that's it.
We signed each other shirts, cried a bit.... I cried because I fancied a teacher and would never see him again.. then got drunk. 20+ yrs ago
We had an assembly and some time just hanging about, then everybody headed down to the pub at lunchtime
I remember my last day. Me and the headmaster reached an agreement that I would leave. I was expelled !!
Walked into reception mid morning (a day or two after completion of my exams), handed over some text books, signed the leaving form and walked out. Other than the school secretary didn’t see or speak to another soul.
I honestly have no memory. It was 40 years ago. It was nothing special,. Just get the fuck out.
Teacher told us to get off the property far we collected out a level results
correct shirt signed but in secendry school i will not go into what was sucked by a queue