🎓 Leavers’ Poetry for KS2: Creative Ways to Say Goodbye 👋
🌟 Why Leavers’ Poetry Matters
The end of Year 6 is such a special moment. Children are saying farewell to friends, teachers, and a school that’s shaped their lives. Year 6 leavers poetry KS2 is a brilliant way for pupils to reflect on memories, celebrate achievements, and look ahead to new adventures.
Poetry helps children:
Express feelings of pride, excitement, and nervousness.
Capture shared memories of their primary years.
Perform together in assemblies or leavers’ services.
Create keepsakes to take away.
🔗 Related: Summer Term Poetry Games KS2 • Assembly Poetry for KS2 👉 Poems About School Trips KS2
👉 In my Poetry Days in primary schools across the UK I work hard to get the children excited about writing and performing their own poems. I visit over 100 schools every year and I’d love to work with your children and teachers.
📅 You can book me for:
In-person Poetry Days across the UK
Online Poetry Workshops (affordable and flexible)
👉 Book a Poet Visit for Your Primary School
Why not start your leavers’ assembly with a ready-made poem that children will instantly connect with?
Goodbye Primary School!
By Ian Bland
Goodbye primary school, I’ve had my fun
Learnt my tables, done my sums
Painted paintings, raised my hand
Played infant games, in infant sand
Written stories, sang the songs
Learned the rights, and learned the wrongs
Cut the paper, drawn the maps
Kicked the balls, and ran the laps
Played the games, and learned the rules
Sawed the wood and used the tools
I’ll remember all the times you cared
Always listened, always heard
You taught me things, I had to know
But now I’m done I have to go
So goodbye primary school!
Goodbye!
👉 This poem works beautifully as a whole-class performance — try choral reading, actions, or echo lines.
Great for teachers looking to save time!
📝 Other Leavers’ Poem Examples for KS2
1. Haiku
Shirts covered in ink,
Memories in every word,
Year Six, moving on.
👉 Haiku Poem Writing Framework
2. List Poem
Lunchtimes,
Laughter,
Tests and triumphs,
Trips and teams,
Teachers,
Together,
Goodbye.
3. Free Verse
We walk through the gates
one last time,
carrying stories,
friendships,
dreams.
4. Silly Limerick
There once was a class full of cheer,
Who’d laughed through another great year,
They packed up their books,
Their pencils, their looks,
And waved to the school with a tear.
🔗 Related: List Poems for KS2 • Haiku Poems KS2 • Free Verse Poetry KS2
Get yourself a signed book!
🎉 Fun Leavers’ Poetry Activities
💡 Memory Jar Poems
Each child writes one line about a favourite primary memory. Combine into a class poem.
💡 T-Shirt Poetry
Children write short farewell verses and decorate them on plain white T-shirts for leavers’ day.
💡 Acrostic “SECONDARY”
Pupils create an acrostic poem for their next chapter, with each line about hopes and goals.
💡 Poetry Film
Record pupils reading leavers’ poems. Edit together with photos from their school journey — a perfect assembly finale.
💡 Goodbye Performance
Perform Goodbye Primary School! as a class, adding percussion (drums, claps, shakers) for rhythm.
👩🏫 Teacher Tips
Use shared word banks: “best memory,” “funniest moment,” “what I’ll miss most.”
Encourage performance poetry — assemblies are a great chance to shine.
Print leavers’ poems as a souvenir booklet for parents and carers.
Celebrate the emotions: pride, sadness, excitement — all belong in the poems.
🔗 Related: Performance Poems KS2 • Fun Writing Warm-Ups KS2
🌟 Final Thought
Leavers’ poems help children mark the end of their primary journey in a meaningful and creative way. Whether it’s a heartfelt free verse, a silly limerick, or a group performance of Goodbye Primary School!, poetry is the perfect way to say farewell.
👉 Want to make leavers’ events unforgettable? My Poetry Days in schools give pupils the chance to create and perform their own poems — a lasting memory of their final term in Year 6.
Find out more and book your school’s Poetry Day ➡ Poets in Schools – Ian Bland
