We hope that as part of your planned activities in school, you will find a way to do something memorable, whether big or small, with your leavers that connects to and amplifies the themes of the service. The Leavers’ Services celebrate this key transition point for your pupils in their life’s journey, celebrating all that they have learnt and experienced in this chapter and looking forward with hope to the next. Key elements of the service will connect this to the Christian belief that God is with us on each step of the journey.
You might like to:
- write prayers of thanks for all that has been experienced at your school and hope for the next chapter
- write letters to new Reception children and their parents celebrating what they can expect at your school, including what the school vision means to them
- create a gift for future generations at your school to enjoy as a ‘legacy’ from this cohort
- create artwork celebrating your school’s vision or children’s hopes for the future
- Courageous Advocacy* activities or other activities that focus on children’s understanding of justice and responsibility
Please identify a planned or new activity or project for your leavers that is meaningful to them and connects with the Leavers’ Services. Focus on something deeply meaningful to your learners, rather than ‘busy work’: it can take as much or as little time as is appropriate in your context – sometimes a deeply meaningful half hour stays with us for life, while other projects need a much larger time commitment to achieve their goals.
We would love you to submit a picture(s) of your class activities, so that these can be shown at the beginning and end of the service and shared across our Diocesan family. Please upload your pictures to this Google Drive by Friday 22 May 2026 at the latest.
Thank you! We look forward to seeing your activities projected up on screen at the leavers’ service.
Note: when you upload your pictures you need to find your school in the relevant service folder (by date and time), open the Google slide document and upload your image(s) onto the template directly. These will save automatically and allow them to be shared during the relevant service. By loading these images this hereby gives permission to the Education Team to share these images with other schools during the leavers services only.
You may find the following definition helpful:
Courageous Advocacy is the act of speaking out against an issue of injustice, often on behalf of those whose voice is not heard. A Courageous Advocate for change needs to be informed about an issue, and take action to transform ourselves, our relationships with others and our communities, from the local to the global. The Christian Faith calls us to be courageous advocates: “Speak up for people who cannot speak for themselves. Protect the rights of all who are helpless” Proverbs 31:8. At different times in our lives we will all have times when we need others to be Courageous Advocates on our behalf and times when we have the opportunity to be a Courageous Advocate for others. A focus on Courageous Advocacy helps to enable all pupils to make ethical choices and be agents of change.
