Year 6 Yearbook Ideas

A great Year 6 yearbook should capture what it felt like to be part of the year group, not simply record everyone's name and photograph.

Pupil profiles, class photos, favourite memories, residentials and school trips, teacher messages, funny moments and future ambitions can all play a part. If you have photographs going back through primary school, you can also show how much pupils have changed from Reception to Year 6.

The best ideas will depend partly on the type of yearbook you choose. A Standard Yearbook lends itself to a clear, linear record of pupils and their memories, while a Premium Yearbook offers a much more bespoke approach, in line with our Secondary Premium option.

What should you put in a Year 6 yearbook?

Start with the people and memories that pupils will genuinely want to look back on.

A good Year 6 yearbook might combine:

individual pupil profiles;
class and friendship photographs;
memories from across primary school;
favourite Year 6 moments;
residentials and school trips;
sports, productions and special events;
messages from teachers;
a headteacher's farewell;
positive awards;
pupil quotes;
ambitions for the future;
photographs from earlier years; and
one or two creative features unique to that year group.

You do not need to use every idea.

A yearbook packed with features can still feel impersonal if the content is generic. Five or six ideas that genuinely reflect your pupils will usually be more memorable than adding pages simply to fill space.

Standard or Premium: choose ideas to suit your yearbook

Before choosing page ideas, think about how you want the finished yearbook to work.

At Yearbooks.co.uk, the Standard package is the more linear option, while Premium takes a much more bespoke approach, in line with the Secondary Premium option.

That affects the type of ideas worth developing.

Standard: concentrate on great content

For a Standard Yearbook, concentrate on getting the fundamentals right:

good pupil photographs;
interesting profile answers;
school memories;
favourite moments;
future ambitions;
staff messages; and
photographs that genuinely represent the year group.

A structured yearbook can still be extremely personal. The personality comes from the pupils, their photographs and their answers, rather than needing lots of individually conceived feature pages.

Premium: think in features and stories

Premium gives you more scope to think about the yearbook as a collection of bespoke features.

That makes it particularly suited to ideas such as:

then-and-now features;
Reception-to-Year-6 timelines;
dedicated residential pages;
creative awards sections;
Year 6 in numbers;
primary-school time capsules;
school maps; and
themed class pages.

1Pupil profile ideas

Pupil profiles give every child their own place in the yearbook.

The key is asking questions that capture who pupils are at this moment in their lives. A list of basic facts is unlikely to mean as much in ten years as hearing what they loved about primary school, what made them laugh or what they imagined they might be doing in the future.

Questions for Year 6 pupil profiles

Looking back

What is your favourite primary school memory?
Which school trip would you happily do again?
Which lesson will you always remember?
What made you laugh the most?
What achievement are you most proud of?
What will you miss about primary school?

School favourites

What was your favourite subject?
What was your favourite school dinner?
What was your favourite playground game?
Which school event did you enjoy most?
What was your favourite school book?

Looking forward

What would you like to be when you grow up?
What are you looking forward to about secondary school?
Where would you love to travel?
What would you like to learn next?
What would you love to achieve?

Questions with a twist

Try something less predictable:

If you were headteacher for a day, what would you do?
What three things would you put in a Year 6 time capsule?
If you could add one lesson to the school timetable, what would it be?
What advice would you give next year's Year 6?
What three words sum up primary school for you?

You don't need to ask every question. A handful of good answers is usually more interesting than a long questionnaire.

Standard idea: Choose a consistent group of questions and use them across pupil profiles. Be mindful there is a finite amount of space we can use per student so if you are going to do more questions we would recommend choosing on the basis the answers are short. If you are unsure please speak to your Wave Ed advisor and they can assist on what will work.

Premium idea: Depending on the chosen specifcation, you might opt to allow more space per student, which would allow more questions and answers to be included.

Year 6 photograph ideas

A good Year 6 yearbook should contain photographs of school life, not only school portraits.

Try to build a mixture of people, everyday experiences and important events.

People

Consider:

individual portraits;
whole-class photographs;
friendship groups;
teachers;
teaching assistants; and
other staff who played an important part in pupils' school lives.

Everyday school life

Look for photographs of:

lessons;
reading;
art and DT;
science;
music;
clubs;
sport;
playground activities; and
normal classroom moments.

These apparently ordinary photographs can become surprisingly meaningful with time.

Big moments

Don't forget:

residentials;
school trips;
sports day;
productions;
performances;
World Book Day;
Christmas activities;
competitions;
charity events; and
leavers' celebrations.

Aim for balance.

If there are hundreds of photographs from sports day and only a few from the school production, that does not necessarily mean sports day deserves most of the yearbook. Look across the collection and ask whether it fairly represents the children's experience.

School memories

Year 6 is the end of a much longer primary-school story.

If appropriate photographs are available, look beyond the pupils' final year to some of the experiences that brought them there:

the Reception year;
first school trips;
Christmas performances;
sports days;
swimming lessons;
memorable assemblies;
World Book Days;
plays and musicals;
residentials;
achievements and competitions;
Year 6 milestones.

Favourite moments

Ask every pupil to complete one simple sentence:

My favourite moment at primary school was…

The answers can appear individually or be brought together on a shared page.

Alternatively, ask pupils to nominate moments and create a Top 10 Primary School Memories feature.

Don't restrict the selection to impressive achievements.

The slightly strange, unexpectedly funny and completely ordinary memories are often the ones pupils remember best.

A rainy sports day, an assembly that went unexpectedly wrong or something a teacher always used to say can be just as evocative as the big school events.

School trips and events

Don't simply fill a page with photographs of a major trip. Tell enough of the story to bring the experience back to life.

For a Year 6 residential, collect:

memorable photographs;
favourite activities;
biggest challenges;
funniest moments;
pupil quotes;
things pupils tried for the first time; and
one thing everyone will remember.

Premium idea: build a trip feature

A bespoke residential spread could be organised around prompts such as:

The highlights
What did everyone love?

The biggest challenge
Which activity took some courage?

We couldn't stop laughing when…
Let the pupils tell the story.

We'd definitely do this again…
Capture their verdicts alongside the photographs.

The same principle works for sports day, productions, museum visits, activity days and special school events.

Teacher messages

A teacher's farewell does not need to be a lengthy formal letter.

Specific memories are usually much more personal.

Give teachers a prompt such as:

What will you remember about this Year 6, what made you proud, and what would you like to say to them before they move to secondary school?

Other starting points include:

My favourite memory of this class…
Three words that describe this year group…
One thing I will miss…
My advice for secondary school…
Never forget…

You could also ask teachers from pupils' earlier school years for one short memory.

The aim is not to collect lots of words. It is to capture something that feels genuinely written for this particular group of children.

Headteacher messages

The headteacher's message is a natural way to welcome readers into the yearbook or provide a final farewell.

Consider asking the headteacher to cover:

what made the year group distinctive;
what pupils contributed to the school;
a memorable event or achievement;
how the children have developed; and
their hopes for pupils as they move on.

Year 6 award ideas

Awards can be great fun, but they should make pupils feel included rather than turning the yearbook into a popularity contest.

Positive possibilities include:

Kindness Champion
Fantastic Teammate
Best Storyteller
Always Ready to Help
Future Author
Future Artist
Future Scientist
Future Inventor
Future Explorer
Future Chef
Future Headteacher
Book Expert
Playground Games Expert

An even more inclusive approach is to give every child their own positive category, rather than creating a small number of awards for which pupils compete.

Quotes

A Year 6 quote doesn't have to come from somebody famous.

Something the children say themselves may be much more meaningful.

Try:

My advice for next year's Year 6 is…

The best thing I learnt at primary school was…

Never forget…

If I could tell my Reception self one thing, it would be…

A sentence that sums up primary school for me is…

If a pupil does choose somebody else's quotation, check the wording and attribution before using it.

Future ambitions

This section may become even more interesting when pupils rediscover their yearbooks as adults.

Ask questions such as:

What would you like to be when you grow up?
Where would you like to travel?
What would you love to learn?
What would you like to achieve?
What do you think you'll be doing in ten years?
What are you looking forward to next?

Where will we be in 2036?

Let children provide the answers in their own words wherever appropriate. The appeal comes from recording what they actually imagined at 10 or 11.

Year 6 yearbook cover ideas for Premium Yearbooks

A strong cover should feel as though it belongs to your school and your pupils, rather than any Year 6.

Here are several directions to explore.

Celebrate the school

Take inspiration from:

school colours;
the school logo;
the building;
a distinctive local feature;
the school mascot; or
something pupils immediately associate with school.

Use pupil artwork

Set a Year 6 art challenge around a theme such as:

Our Years at Primary School

Our Next Chapter

The winning idea could inspire the yearbook, while shortlisted artwork could potentially be celebrated inside.

Celebrate the year group

Create a concept around the pupils themselves, their leaving year or their names.

Look back

Use Reception-to-Year-6 imagery or the idea of a journey through primary school.

Look forward

Base the creative idea around pupils moving on to their next chapter at secondary school.

Tell the story through photographs

A photographic approach can celebrate the people and experiences that defined the year group.

The available creative routes will depend on the yearbook package selected.

Fun and unusual Premium yearbook ideas

If you're choosing Premium because you want something more bespoke, think beyond conventional profile and photograph pages.

The best unusual features still need a reason to exist: they should reveal something about the pupils, school or year group.

Year 6 A to Z

Create an alphabet of school memories.

For example:

A is for Assembly
B is for Book Day
C is for Christmas production

Let the children suggest the entries. Their choices are likely to be far more distinctive than something created entirely by adults.

Year 6 in numbers

Tell part of the year's story using real numbers.

Possible figures might include:

books read;
sporting fixtures;
trips;
performances;
clubs;
fundraising;
residential activities.

Only use figures the school can genuinely verify.

Primary school time capsule

Ask:

If we could put ten things in a time capsule to represent our time at primary school, what would they be?

Pupils could nominate items and explain their choices.

Objects do not have to be important. An ordinary object with a brilliant story behind it can tell readers far more about school life.

Our school map

Create a feature around the places pupils associate with their school memories.

These might include:

Reception classroom;
hall;
playground;
library;
playing field;
Year 6 classroom;
production rehearsal space;
school gates.

Attach memories, quotes or photographs to the different locations.

Year 6 survival guide

Let this year's Year 6 leave advice for the next group.

Ask them to complete:

Always remember…

Don't worry about…

Definitely try…

The secret to Year 6 is…

It gives the page a real purpose while creating plenty of opportunities for the pupils' personalities to come through.

Guess who?

Use appropriate childhood or early-school photographs and ask classmates to identify the pupils.

Answers could appear elsewhere in the book.

Make sure any photographs selected are appropriate for publication in accordance with the school's policies and procedures.

If our class were…

Ask the pupils:

If our class were a film, what would it be called?
If our class had a theme tune, what would it be?
If our class were an animal, what would it be?
If somebody wrote a book about our class, what would its title be?

Use their answers to build a page that genuinely reflects the group.

Dear future me…

Ask every pupil for one brief message to their future self:

When you read this again, I hope…

This works particularly well towards the end of a yearbook as the focus moves from looking back to looking forward.

How to choose the best ideas for your Year 6 yearbook

You don't need to use everything in this guide.

Start by giving every child their place in the yearbook, then record the shared experiences that made this particular year group memorable.

Then ask three questions about any additional idea:

Does it say something about our particular pupils or school?
Will the children enjoy rediscovering it in five or ten years?
Does it add something that isn't already elsewhere in the yearbook?

If the answer is yes, it probably deserves consideration.

Standard or Premium?

A Standard Yearbook is a good fit when you want a straightforward, structured leavers' book centred on pupils, photographs and their memories.

A Premium Yearbook is worth considering when you want a much more bespoke approach, using creative features to tell more of the story of your particular pupils and their time at school.

One isn't automatically more meaningful than the other.

A thoughtfully organised Standard Yearbook containing brilliant pupil answers and memorable photographs can be far more personal than a book filled with creative features that have little connection to the pupils.

Standard is about making the content count. Premium gives you more scope to make the presentation part of the story too.

Ready to create your Year 6 yearbook?

Once you've decided which ideas feel right for your pupils, the next step is to choose the type of yearbook that suits the project.

Explore Primary School Yearbooks

See our Primary School Yearbooks and explore the Standard and Premium options for your Year 6 leavers.

If you're still gathering photographs, pupil profiles and contributions, read the Complete School Yearbook Planning Guide next if you haven’t already!