End of session parties have become part and parcel of school calendar in recent times. In this article, I’ll like to share with some tips and tricks on how to plan for a successful school end of session party.
Before Party
- Make your soft or hard copies of invitation if you need to and share it and get sponsors among your supporting parents.
- Make a backdrop for your programme. If you don’t want to do it, no problem, at least do the one that you can afford.
- Have an external sponsor, like your publishers, printers, school tailors, brands that are your friends. Use them as your sponsors. Get their names and logos and fix it up and paste it. Try and share the design with them. Let them know they are your sponsor in the program. That will send a signal to them to support you.
- Get good sounds system for your music. Noise attracts people on the street and in the environment. The more noise the more awareness you are creating.
- Beautify the environment and the stage. Colours attract the eyes while sound attracts the ears.
- Assign duties among your staff.
- Get an active and experienced MC along with generating set in case of power failure. Power outages and faulty mics can mar your event.
- Make room for extra food or gifts. There’s always an invited guest to every party. You can’t stop this.
- Pray for the success of your party. We’re living in a wicked world!
- Make sure you have sound health to avoid mental breakdown during the party.
During the Party
- Get to the venue as early as possible to see things for yourself. It’ll be embarrassing to sweep when your guests are already seated.
- Keep your eyes on your staff to make sure that they carry out their duties. Nonchalant staff can mess things up!
- Make sure your customers (parents) are well served. An underserved parent can withdraw their children from your school because of food.
- Keep the party as short as possible. Many people don’t like long parties.
- Go round to take photographs with your key parents. They may not stay till the end of the party.
- Get feedback from your parents before they leave the venue. This will help you to sort out issues before they get out of hand. A simple question like, “I hope you enjoyed yourself?” can do the trick.
- Make sure every parent or student goes home with a gift even if they didn’t paid for the party. A little food or snack will be enough for an invited guest. See some gift ideas here.
- Start with prayer and close with prayer. Many people are religiously sensitive. If you don’t they’ll think you’re devilish, even if you’re not.
- Try to see some of your parents off, if not all. This will make them feel important.
- Don’t leave the venue until all your parents have left. It’s a sign that you care!
After the Party
- Call, text or chat with your parents to thank them for coming.
- Thank your parents for their contributions even if they contributed nothing.
- Pray for them in your message and wish them well.
- Promise them even better events in the future.