National Education > General National Education Discussion

What are your experience with formal, valedictory etc.?

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Joseph41:
I guess some of the "privileges" of rising up the high school ranks is being exposed to stuff like formals, valedictories, graduation and the like. And I'm interested in how this changes from school-to-school, and whether you had any other similar events. For me:

FORMALS:
We had our first one in Year 10. I can't remember where it was, but the venue was pretty small and the dance floor matched it. We had awards for, like, "most likely to get married" and stuff (they've just broken up - doesn't say much for the rest of us). I'm sure I would have left pretty early. Year 11 - similar thing. I think this was actually my favourite formal, though; it was held at San Remo Ballroom and, therefore, just had a lot more space to spread out. Less gross. I don't remember much of our Year 12 formal but I'm pretty sure I had a terrible time for a number of reasons lol.

VALEDICTORY:
Had this before we received our results - not sure if that's the same for other schools? But it made it all a bit weird, because it was also before exams. It was like, "yeee boiii we're done - oh wait, no we're not." Had our teachers and families there. Everybody from our year was called up to receive a certificate. In hindsight, I have no idea what that certificate was - "good job for almost finishing" or similar, I guess.

All in all, I'm glad I went to all of the above, even though when I think back I go, "ehgehheghhhh". I don't have the fondest of memories of any of them, really, but they were experiences.

How about you? 🤔

Calebark:
Yr 10:
This was my first formal. I can't actually remember where it was held, but it was a pretty spacey venue. I think there were about eight to a table. I knew everybody on the table, so it was an easy-going experience. Everyone on the table was in a couple, from memory. I remember the food being the best part of the night tbh -- the dessert was like a giant Ferrero Rocher ball filled with ice cream. As soon as dessert was served, the music started playing, so the entire table got up to dance except for my date and I because, well, it was a really good dessert. The music was mostly the top 100, which annoyed me a lot back then, but I still spent most the night dancing. We had trivial award things, like 'most likely to win a Nobel prize' (spoiler alert: the winner does not have a Nobel prize yet), which were pretty fun. I had a fun night, but out of all the formal events, it was probably my least favourite because I was a lot more quiet and less outgoing back then, so I felt a bit uncomfortable.

Yr 11/12:
We didn't have formals for these years in my school. Some of my friends did deb, but from memory these were not through the school, so I won't comment. Is it normal to have formals in Yr 11 and 12? I thought it was just a Yr 10 thing.

Valedictory:
My valedictory experience was a bit unique. For starters, I never put in a deposit/form to attend valedictory because I was a) not graduating that year (altho I attended 2016 graduation, not 2017 graduation) and b) homeless, so couldn't spare the money. Right before exams, a coordinator approached me and asked if I was attending val, so I said no and whatnot. They said they could pull some strings and the school would pay for me, so I said yes. I was pretty happy about it. Unfortunately, by the time it rolled around, I just got out of hospital for pneumonia, so I could not attend. I was temporarily living with my best friend's family at this point, so I just spent it with her cats. From what I heard about the night, they handed out awards for highest achievers in a subject. I ended up picking up my Biology award after my Biology exam. I can't really comment much more on the night, obviously. My night's experience ended in being woken up by a bunch of friends barging into the room I was in, forcing me to get dressed, and us all going out to drink to celebrate. Despite not going to the actual val, it ended on a high note, because I celebrated being done with the year, which is essentially what it's all about.

fantasticbeasts3:
At my school, we had formals in years 10 and 12. No valedictories - idk if that's a term we use in NSW but we just call it graduation... I think? Might vary across schools.

Year 10 formal was organised by two girls and their parents, and the general consensus was that it was an average night - not amazing, but not awful either. I wouldn't know how that night was because I didn't go.

Year 12 formal was organised by my school, and I don't know about others but I had a great night. Our formal was 1.5 weeks after the HSC, so it had been a while since most had seen their friends and in general it was really nice to catch up with everyone! The venue was decent and the only problem with it was they didn't put on music (like dance music) until all the food was served. I think the actual event started at ~6.30, food started being served around 7, and there was no music until almost 9 lol.

Aaron:
Didn't have a formal, didn't go to deb, went to valedictory and it was average at best. I remember the crappy food and receiving a subject award, that's about it. Perks of a underfunded public school in a low-mid SES area.

i really need access to more emojis, specifically the hand ones... then this post would be truly complete

spectroscopy:
year 10 social was fucking lit everyone wore suits and it was just good vibes all around cos no one had really been to anything like that before
year 11 was even MORE lit cos it was half outdoors and a people were a bit more cool and it was way more casual but still crazy
year 12 formal was nice but it was basically just an evening of taking photos with each other
year 12 valedictory was a nice way to finish off school but people mostly sat with their parents at their table

i cant remember any speeches or awards at any of these tbh

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