Prize Giving – an important day in a British boarding school

The annual Prize Giving at a British boarding school: why this is a real occasion, not just a “school assembly”.

Sometimes parents hear the words Prize Giving or Speech Day and imagine something like an ordinary school assembly: people gather, clap politely, then drift off home… rather dull. But in British boarding schools it is a completely different story, and this day should not be underestimated.

Prize Giving is one of the most important days of the year, when the whole school comes together: senior leadership, governors, teachers, invited guests, students and their families. It is a moment when the school pauses, looks back, and says out loud: this is what the year has been, and this is what and who we are genuinely proud of.

In feeling, it is not simply an awards ceremony. It is a large, carefully thought-through act of recognition, where marks and trophies matter far less than growth, effort, contribution, character, and the ability to be part of the school community. The speeches from the stage are usually far from formal: jokes, sometimes understood only by the insiders, a bit of self-mockery, irony, that distinctly British sense of humour – all of it sets the tone and gives the day its meaning, showing which values the school truly believes in and what kind of young people it hopes to shape.

For older students, Prize Giving is often seen as a kind of milestone – not quite graduation, but still a moment of reckoning, an invisible line after which it becomes clear: this stage has been completed, much has been achieved, and the next step lies ahead. That is why in some schools the day falls very close to leavers’ events, or is even combined with them.

For parents, especially when a child is studying far from home, Prize Giving is a wonderful chance to see the school as it really is, not through letters and reports, but through its atmosphere, its people, and its traditions. It helps them understand the environment in which their child is growing up, the standards taken as normal there, and the way the school speaks to children and about them. It is no accident that many families make a special trip for the day and plan it well in advance – it is genuinely worth it.

Last year I was invited by clients to Prize Giving at Bromsgrove, and it was unforgettable. It had everything: the formal ceremony, the speeches, the presentation of awards, moments when tears brought on by overwhelming emotion and by laughter somehow mixed together, and then conversations with smiling parents, inspired students, and proud members of staff. What stayed with me most was the feeling that every child there mattered. No one was simply “one of many”, no one was part of a faceless crowd, but a person being carefully nurtured and encouraged. For children, it is a moment of pride and confidence. For parents, it is reassurance that the school knows their child and values their journey, not just the end result.

That is why so many alumni of prestigious schools still remember their school prizes decades later, not as awards, but as the moment when they were first truly seen and recognised as young adults.

To understand the scale of this culture of recognition, and the fact that school prizes can become part of a person’s life story, one example comes to mind: Winston Churchill. While at Harrow School, he competed seriously for a school prize in speaking and recitation and won it by learning 1,200 lines from Macaulay’s Lays of Ancient Rome by heart. It became one of the defining episodes of his school years.

And what does a guardian do on this day? Very often, we become that all-important “family presence” when parents cannot be there, and at Prize Giving that is felt especially strongly. Helping a child get ready, making sure their uniform is immaculate and that nothing distracts them, supporting them before they walk onto the stage and hugging them afterwards, simply being there. Then sending parents photographs and videos, telling them how it all went, explaining the details that are not always obvious from the outside. And, of course, genuinely sharing in the joy and pride of our young people, because our contribution is part of this day as well.

Prize Giving is not “an awards ceremony for the sake of awards”. It is about belonging to the pack, about feeling that you are in the right place, that you matter, that all the effort was worthwhile. And that stays with people for a very long time.

Do not ignore it.