Year 6 Leavers Awards are one of the final memories kids have of Primary School, and done right it can be really special for them.
At MedalStudio we’ve helped create bespoke awards for hundreds of Year 6 Leavers nights, so we figured we’d share some of our favourites to inspire you.
We find that great awards are specific, kind-hearted, and celebrate something the child would be proud of. Not just awarded to make a joke that could land badly. The more personal and unique the awards, the more meaningful for the students and their parents.
Below we’ll cover 16 award categories, eight Most Likely To predictions, and how to run the presentation itself.
Classroom and Subject Awards
Subject awards are the easiest ones to make specific, so start here. Each one is worth pairing with a spoken line about the moment it refers to.
- Maths Mastermind. For the one who spots the pattern before anyone else has finished reading the question.
- Reading Champion. Got through the class library and started on the staff room shelf.
- History Detective. Wanted to know what happened next, then went home and found out.
- Walking Encyclopaedia Award. Ask them anything, get an answer, usually correct.
- Fact of the Day Award. A new one about sharks every morning.
- Best Singer.
Playground and Personality Awards
The sillier end of the list. These all have a story attached, so have a sentence ready for each.
- The Fashion King or Queen. Made non-uniform day an event and had strong opinions about the leavers’ hoodie.
- Dancing King or Queen.
- The Impersonator. The impressions of the staff are too good, and the staff have noticed.
- Helping Hand Award. Already stacking the chairs before anyone asked.
- Playground Referee. Sorts out the football arguments before an adult has to.
- The Weatherman or Weatherwoman. It’s raining again, it’s too hot, it’s so windy. You always know the conditions when this one’s around.
- Spirit of Year 6. Loud on sports day, kind in the corridor, first to volunteer.
The Big Three
Save these for the end of the running order.
- Classmate of the Year, voted by the students.
- Teacher’s Choice Award, voted by the teachers.
- Rising Star, for the most improved. The biggest distance travelled rather than the highest mark, which is the harder thing to do.
Most Likely To
Always a fun one, “Most Likely to” awards are great for celebrating the passions and ambitions of individual students.
- Most Likely to Be Prime Minister
- Most Likely to Be an Inventor
- Most Likely to Be an Entrepreneur
- Most Likely to Be an Astronaut
- Most Likely to Be a Pro Athlete
- Most Likely to Be a YouTube Star
- Most Likely to Win an Oscar
- Most Likely to Paint a Masterpiece
Keep every prediction positive. The version that goes wrong is the one predicting a child will fail at something.
How to Run the Year 6 Leavers Assembly Awards
The names matter less than the way you hand them out. Three decisions do most of the work.
Give everyone one, or give very few
The middle ground is the worst outcome. Hand prizes to 60 children out of 90 and the other 30 are effectively singled out, and a prize stops feeling special once most of the year group has one.
Pick a small handful of competitive awards, or give every child something personal to them. Then count the awards against the register before you start.
Vote from a shortlist, not from scratch
Open nominations on joke categories turn into a popularity contest. Set the categories yourself, then let the children vote within a shortlist you’ve already vetted.
Say something about each child
A sentence each is enough, and it’s the part that carries the moment. At that pace a year group of 120 takes around forty minutes. Order anything physical two to three weeks ahead so the assembly isn’t waiting on a delivery.
Keeping It Kind
Read the award name and picture a parent photographing it to put on the fridge. If that makes you wince, change the wording.
The line is about who the joke is on, not the category. The Fashion King or Queen celebrates a choice the child made and is pleased to be known for. Class Clown, Chatterbox, Most Annoying, anything about a child’s body rather than their choices, and anything predicting a bad outcome all make the child the punchline instead.
We recommend reading every category against the children who will actually receive them before anything is printed. Your SENCO or TA will spot straight away what a name will mean to a particular child.
Then offer a quiet opt-out. Being called to the front of a full hall isn’t comfortable for every child, and handing the award over afterwards costs nothing. Anything tied to a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010 is the hard line.
Making the Awards Worth Keeping
The best ones double as the joke. Our design team works up custom shapes free of charge, so a Fact of the Day medal can be an open book and a Walking Encyclopaedia award can be a globe. It costs no more than a standard shape and it turns the award itself into the punchline.
Our medals for schools suit the volume end where every child gets one, and our special shape awards cover the headline categories you want looking like a proper trophy.
Personalisation is where these earn their keep: the school name, the year, the house, the child’s own award title on the back. That’s the detail that makes it theirs rather than generic. You’ll see a proof within a working day, turnaround is two weeks from artwork approval, and we can handle a small top-up order if your numbers change late on.
Planning the staff side of the ceremony as well? Our funny teacher award ideas cover the sarcastic register that works between colleagues and would be badly out of place with children. For the sports day and end-of-season side, our funny sport award ideas has the team categories.
Bringing It Together
It comes down to specificity. Name the thing the child did, keep it to something they chose, and read it once more as a parent before it goes to print. Sort the names first, decide whether everyone is getting one, then choose awards the children will actually want to keep. If you’d like a hand turning your categories into something special, our design team will work up the artwork before you commit to anything. Thanks for reading, and good luck with the assembly.
Updated: 24/08/2026