From Kindergarten to the Class of 2025, Students are Moving Up and Moving On

Graduation is a major milestone for thousands of seniors across our district, but they’re not the only ones who are moving up and moving on. Kindergartners, fifth graders, and eighth graders are all embarking on a new journey as well.  

Seattle Public Schools handed out more than four thousand diplomas to graduating seniors — each one a symbol of perseverance, growth, and triumph.

In his opening remarks, Cleveland STEM High School Principal Jeffrey Lam reminded his seniors how they began their high school journey in the shadow of a global pandemic — spending a year and a half in online classes before returning to school. 

The seniors enrolled in Cascade Parent Partnership’s Virtual Option school are familiar with online learning. Nineteen students walked across the stage to collect their diplomas.

From Roosevelt to Rainier Beach, Ingraham to Interagency, the Class of 2025 showed resilience, creativity, and heart. And after years of rebuilding – both mentally and academically – they are ready to step into their future.

“Today, we don’t leave as finished products. We leave as beginnings. We’re still learning, still becoming, and still growing,” said Franklin High School graduate Nicole Duong. “Some of us already have had a rough sketch of who we want to be. Some of us are still finding out who we want to be. Both are exactly where we’re supposed to be.”

While finishing high school is a major achievement, kindergartners also celebrated their first big milestone — promotion to first grade! Hundreds of young scholars across the district donned paper hats and their nicest outfits to cap their first year of school.

Most elementary, middle, and K-8 schools held promotion ceremonies for their students. At Madrona Elementary, parents watched with pride as the school’s two kindergarten teachers read the names of their students and shared their future career goals. Students proclaimed they wanted to be ballerinas, soccer players, scientists and doctors. The excitement was thick as tiny voices filled the room with songs.   

Hamilton International Middle School held their ceremony in the Lincoln High School gym. Eighth graders dressed to impress, and families celebrated in a nearby park with games and food trucks. Salmon Bay K-8 treated their graduates to a picnic at Golden Gardens ahead of their 8th grade promotion ceremony.

Moving up to middle school can be daunting for fifth graders, but the ones at Thurgood Marshall Elementary said their teachers have prepared them for what’s to come. Ahead of the school’s 5th grade promotion ceremony, rising sixth grader Robel B. shared how he plans to make new friends in middle school.

“I learned this year how things are going to be in middle school, about how lunch is going to be, how to make friends, and how people are going to be,” he said. “Even if I go to a different middle school than my friends, at least I know I can make new friends … just like how it was when I first came to this school. That makes me really happy, and I’m just going to do that again.”