British Graduation Songs

[writersaurusrex]

What song (if any) is traditionally played at graduations? (For example, in the US, it's Elgar's "Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 in D", aka "Land of Hope and Glory".) Or do they play the school song, or does it vary wildly from school to school.

If it matters, it's for the equivalent of secondary school (specifically, Hogwarts

Comments

[cat63]

Things may be different now, but when I left school (early 1980s) there was no "graduation" at all - you just finished your exams and that was it. You got the results in the summer after the end of the school year so there was no real scope for graduation as such.

The results still come out at the same time as they used to so I don't think that will have changed hugely.

So, no song because no graduation to play it at....

On the other hand, if it's Hogwarts, the wizarding world does tend to do things a bit differently to the muggles, so there may be scope to have some sort of graduation ceremony if you really need it for the plot.

[mandragora1]

There are no traditional songs because students who leave school don't graduate, they simply leave. There are therefore no graduation ceremonies in UK schools, although I believe there is talk of introducing them and a few schools may have done so. If so, it's still very unusual.

You could introduce some sort of leaving ceremony at Hogwarts, if you wanted, but suggest you avoid US style graduation ceremonies as they're not used in the UK.

Oh, and there isn't necessarily a school song, either. No school I attended had one, for example but there may be British schools that do, I suppose.

Incidentally, there are graduation ceremonies from UK universities but we didn't play music at mine, at least, and mine is one of the Russell Group, and therefore more traditional, universities.

[tweedisgood]

Echoing this, only my school (state Grammar school, 1970s) did have a "school hymn" ('Praise, my soul, the King of Heaven', which I still know off by heart). We sung it on special occasions at our daily morning assembly, including the beginning and end of the school year.

I went to Cambridge and we had a graduation ceremony at the Senate House where we had to kneel and swear fealty to the Vice Chancellor as representative of the university after being "presented" to him in Latin in groups by individual college, but no music whatsoever.

[versipellis]

My school (private, 1990s) also took a well-known hymn as its "school hymn" but as for you, we only sung it in assemblies with some specifically school-related theme, and I don't think any of us identified it much with our school.

I can't remember if my university graduation ceremony had any music at all - if it did, it would have been some kind of classical music, but it wasn't specific to the university or something every university did. My university came into being in the 1960s so it's not even half as traditional/full of rituals as Cambridge!

[tweedisgood]

I still remember the brief prep lesson we were given beforehand (and this is 32 years ago, gosh) - "put your hands together, place them between his - horizontally, you're not praying to him" !

[swingandswirl]

Hogwarts doesn't have graduations, being a British school, but JKR has said in interviews that the seventh-years leave the castle via boat rather than carriage, a kind of mirror of the first time they come to Hogwarts.

Since we don't see Harry's seventh-year, you could make up a tradition, if you like- a seventh-years-only breakfast before they head out, or similar.

[acetamide]

There is no graduation for British high schools, as cat63 and the others have said.

In some of the more prestigious schools of England, however, there is sometimes a prizegiving ceremony whereby awards named after famous alumni are presented; for example, when I finished my A Levels after 7 years of schooling, I received the Rosemary Currie award for Chemistry (as I achieved the highest Chemistry grade in my year). If you were wanting some sort of ceremony for the 7th Years, a prizegiving along these lines might be an idea.

[helle_d]

Seconding this - lots of private schools have a Prize Day or 'Commemoration of Benefactors' event, possibly involving a church service, endless speeches and (depending on the school) a chance for the school leavers to let their hair down afterwards.

[jayb111]

As others have said, British school leavers don't graduate