Who doesn’t want their hallways bursting with school spirit? You want everyone to be proud of where they spend most of their time during the school year. In fact, a high level of school spirit has been shown to help students perform well academically and makes them happier in general.

Unfortunately, a lot of students may have a hard time feeling particularly excited about coming to school every day. 

Luckily, raising school spirit may be easier than you think. With just a bit of planning, your school can have a stronger sense of community in almost no time. Here are some of our favourite ideas:

Hold a Pep Rally or Spirit Day

You know this from movies and TV shows: pep rallies never fail at getting staff and students together to cheer on the school’s sports teams before a big game. Pep rallies aren’t just for high school students, either, and cheerleaders or football teams aren’t necessary ingredients.

A spirit day may be better geared toward elementary and middle schoolers. Encourage students to wear school colours, organize some intramural sports games that everyone can take part in, and offer a pizza lunch. Go big and rent bouncy castles or just pick an easy theme for dressing up. Have you ever met a kid who didn’t love a PJ day?

Pep rallies and spirit days are great ways to raise school spirit. The students get a break from classes for the afternoon, have a chance to socialize with their classmates and cheer each other on while having fun. Including a unifying activity is always a win; you could make it a day of service in the community or host your own colour run. The options are neverending.

Start a Yearbook

Document how fun this year was with a school yearbook. Help your students remember their classmates and teachers, their teams and clubs, and even incorporate candid shots from school events.

Creating a fun yearbook promotes your school to your students similar to the way marketing and branding promote a corporate company.

Encouraging students to join the yearbook committee and be a part of the production process can even help them prepare for their future schooling and/or careers.

Create More Extracurricular Activities

If you have staff members that are willing to supervise, start new clubs and teams to encourage students to get more involved with the school!

Have teachers survey their classes to find out what the most in-demand activities are and look into implementing one or two of the most popular ideas. Maybe it’s a lunchtime intramural basketball “league” or an after school language club.

Check out this list of school club ideas if you’re in need of a little inspiration!

It’s no secret that we love yearbooks. Who doesn’t? They’re the perfect keepsake of a school year, something you can look back on even decades later for a good laugh or when you’re feeling nostalgic.

We believe these memories in and of themselves are an important gift that every student should have, but what if we told you that yearbooks can bring even more benefits to the students at your school?

When students are involved in building a yearbook, amazing things happen.

They become better students.

They’re better equipped for college and university, and eventually the workforce.

They’ll go on to find a cure for cancer and stop global warming!

Okay, we may be exaggerating a bit on that last one, but the rest holds up. Students who work on their school yearbook really do gain skills that can help set them up for a better future. Read on to find out how.

They improve their soft skills

Being part of yearbook production requires skills like organization, teamwork, communication, problem-solving, and collaboration. These skills are important as they continue their public school years and work on group projects in the classroom, but they become increasingly more important as students enter post-secondary schools or the “real world”. 

It’s a fun way to develop these skills, too! 

They gain hard skills

Students working on their yearbook will have to learn about things like photography, journalism, graphic design, and working with computers. 

In a world where many teenagers don’t know what kind of career they want, gaining firsthand experience in some potential careers can be vital for helping them decide what to do when they finish high school. It serves as a lower risk experimentation for them versus spending an entire semester doing a co-op, and it’s a ton of fun to boot.

That’s not to mention how great their yearbook experience will look on their college or university applications! Who knows, maybe they will end up curing cancer.

They start to build a portfolio 

Bring on the AP high school classes or journalism school applications; yearbook students are ready for it all.

Finishing in the spring with a tangible output is more than just a source of pride for those who worked on it. It’s proof that they worked hard on a year-long project and likely overcame obstacles to get it done. How many admissions advisors wouldn’t be impressed by that?

Are you a school administrator interested in starting a yearbook for your school? Email us at yearbook@edgeimaging.ca or call (905) 631-3114 ext. 270 to get started!

Are you a student or the parent of a student who wants to develop skills by working on a school yearbook? Send this post to the people at your school office!