OR ARE YOU A PARENT HELPING TO PLAN A YEAR 6 END OF YEAR PARTY?

Love Productions, home of The Great British Bake-Off, is producing a pilot TV show about Year 6 proms.

We are looking for children and parents gearing up for the big day.

If you would like to find out more, we’d love to hear from you.

For a chat, please get in touch:

Charlotte Armstrong:  020 7067 4873

Charlotte.armstrong@loveproductions.co.uk

One of the earliest decisions the prom committee needs to make is whether there will be a prom king and queen. Here is some information on how it's done in America (after all, that's where this whole prom thing has come from in the first place) and some thoughts about whether it fits for a UK school prom.

American prom kings and queens

Being the king and queen of a prom is a Big Deal in America. You can tell by the number of films and TV shows that feature it. I'm old enough to remember a whole episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer that revolved around the contest to become prom queen for example.

In many schools, electing a prom king and queen is nothing more than a popularity contest. The candidates need to be nominated and seconded, and then weeks of crazing campaigning involving posters all over the school and bribes and secret deals are carried out frantically right up until the vote, with the winners announced at the prom itself.

Nowadays however, many American schools are only letting students who have achieved a certain level of academic grades, or those who participate in extra-curricula activities be nominated. I suppose they're trying to encourage better performance at school and also improve the image of academic success. I quite like the idea of linking that prime moment in the spotlight with more than just a popularity contest.

Does the whole prom king and queen thing work in the UK?

Well, yes, if you want it to! Some schools don't like students to be too distracted by their campaigns and so don't allow the whole popularity contest aspect of voting for a prom king and queen. If that's the case in your school, you could do it differently…

Choosing the prom royalty on the night

You could ask a group of teachers, or a secretly allocated group of guests (who would be excluded from winning) to agree on a prom king and queen on the night itself, perhaps based upon their outfits and how well they're dancing.

If that seems like too much of a minefield, then simply arrange for a ballot on the night, just like the general election. You could give voting slips with each ticket, so people can only make one vote each.

Adopting the high flyer approach

You could always set criteria for nominees like being in a school club, getting certain grades or having been positively involved in school life in some other way. It depends on your school; that might cause an uproar in some and for others it might be a way to improve how much people participate and how well they do in that prom year.

I don't think that being prom king and queen has taken off in the UK as much as it has in the States, but who knows what will happen as it grows in popularity. And who wouldn't like to have a fuss made over them?

Are you having a prom king and queen? How are you going to decide who it should be? Let us know in the comments!

Most schools make an announcement in assembly calling for volunteers to be on the prom committee. Great; there’s loads of excitement and lots of interest. Then the first meeting happens, and tonnes of people turn up with loads of ideas and it turns into a mosh pit.

There’s a real difference between the people who will turn up at the first prom volunteers meeting and the people who will be at the last prom committee meeting: commitment. Not everyone at the volunteers meeting will understand how much work is involved, or that it’s not all fun ideas and putting up balloons. The thing is, you won’t know who the really great committee members are at this point. So how do you deal with a room of excited people all wanting to contribute?

Brainstorm!

Turn the situation to your advantage by getting everyone to calm down and then ask for two volunteers to be scribes. One needs to be happy to stand at the whiteboard and write stuff on it, the other has to be happy to write / type fast.

Then someone else has to be temporary chairman. This could be the head boy or girl or a teacher – someone who is used to fielding lots of shouting people!

The chairperson then asks everyone to give ideas about what they would want to see at the prom – don’t worry if they’re outlandish, or crazy – what’s important at this point is creativity and ideas – they can be pruned later.

The scribe at the board writes the ideas as bullet points. The second scribe copies these onto paper and also writes down things that might not be making it on to the board, such as other ideas they hear from the group (let’s face it, people are going to be talking over one another).

When all of the wishes are exhausted, the second scribe makes sure that all the bullet points on the board are down on the page and the board is cleared. The Chairperson calls for a bit of order and asks for ideas about what people definitely don’t want at the prom. The scribes do the same as they did before.

A word of warning

Don’t make any promises. Make it clear that this is just brainstorming and that ideas are being put on the table that may not be feasible when investigated further.

Finding the really committed people for the prom committee

The ideas that come out of this meeting will begin to shape the school prom, but at this point, they are only ideas. The next step is research, and this is where you can start to whittle out the people who aren’t committed.

The chairperson needs to ask for volunteers to take away something from the list to investigate. Make it clear that if a person volunteers, they need to come back in a week’s time with a list of three local companies that can provide that service and an example picture if they can find one on the web. If you really want to get down to business, tell the volunteers that if they can’t do their bit now, they won’t be on the committee.

At this point, some people will drop out. Some will take a task away, but not turn up with the goods at the next meeting – and not be on the committee as a result. It might seem harsh, but organising a prom is hard work and needs a team of people who are reliable and committed. Finding out who those people are sooner rather than later will take away a lot of stress down the line. Of course, if you prefer, you can let the process happen naturally.