June half-term can be a time of transition for colleges in a way that is usually not replicated in schools, because certain students may have completed all the work they will be assessed on.

Schools have a flavour of that this year because of the cancellation of exams and the need for teacher assessed grades (TAGs) to come in. One teacher expressed dismay recently because his GCSE-age children were being told that the school year was ending at half term. 

For students in their final college year, it can also come as a shock.

As a pastoral teacher for whom progress is the focus, I spend the whole year counting down the time left with the students, trying to prepare them for what happens when they leave.

One of my favourite bombshells is asking those who are not continuing in education what their plans are for the end of June. “Don’t you mean September, Kirsty?” they ask, wide-eyed and baffled. “Oh no, my sweet child. If you’re not in education, your adult life begins in July. You’ve had your last summer off!” I laugh, maniacally. “Welcome to adult hell!”

Mental health: Why we need to cut students some slack

Alternative provision: £8m to support transition to FE

Watch: How one college is dancing through coronavirus

A sad fact for students leaving in June is that some colleges don’t mark this at all. There is no prom, no prize-giving, no graduation ceremony for a level 3 extended diploma.

There’s always quite a sad moment when the students leave for the last time and just walk out. Some of them might have spent three or four years in the same institution but there is no set system for bidding them goodbye.

There are sometimes end-of-year shows for creative subjects, and maybe the students’ union puts on an event. But, in general, it’s the old “fun lesson with Kahoot!” and then out into the world. There’s a big gap between the school-leavers’ disco and university graduation, and which does not really have a name or a set celebration.

I have had precisely three graduation-style events: the first was when I “left” school after GCSEs, even though I was coming back for sixth form. I remember the uninspiring budget hotel function room, one of the girls’ dads doing the disco and spending precisely £9 on a dress, which was actually a nightie. It’s far cry from what we were expecting to do for my 16-year-old twins, who graduate from high school soon. It was going to be all limos and corsages and full-length ballgowns. Covid has reduced that down to possibly a marquee in the school car park if the weather is OK.

My sixth-form leavers’ party was at the same uninspiring hotel as the first “prom”. We were mostly all 18, so ended up in the worst, and only, nightclub in the local area. 

I remember nothing about my university “graduates ball” except that it was my first experiment with fake tan, and I still look like the ghost of an old Victorian governess in the photos.

I didn’t attend my PGCE graduation because it was going to cost £35, which I did not have, so I just got my certificate in the post.  I recall that when my younger brother graduated from a HND programme at the college where I now teach, none of them could afford the gown hire so they all pitched in to hire one and then just took turns having pictures taken in it in front of a nearby tree.

In all honesty, I don’t know how well attended a whole-college party would be - as a large college with five campuses, our students don’t really mix, as a rule.

Maybe the idea of different celebrations for each course group would be a better one. But, right now, with teachers having to produce TAGs on top of the normal admin workload for the year, it doesn’t seem like anyone’s priority.

I do, however,  know about a crate of leftover conference wine in the deputy principal’s office. Maybe I’ll just text the door code to the student reps and let them make their own fun.