Those with their fingers on the pulse will have noticed the growing trend in British secondaries for US-style high school “proms”. But have you noticed the phenomenon has arrived at primary level?
A particularly eye-catching event was held at Canon Maggs junior school in Bedworth, Warwickshire, last Thursday. Onlookers were amazed to see the road outside the school blocked by two white stretch limos, a stretch VW Beetle, a fire engine, several Jaguars and Porsches and the original open-topped, Union Jack-painted “Shaguar” driven by international man of mystery Austin Powers in his latest movie, all dropping off pupils at the school’s “I’m a celebrity get me in here” prom.
Head Rod Steward explained that, while the gleaming conveyances were real, the “celebrities” emerging from them were just the school’s final year pupils in quite extraordinarily realistic fancy dress.
“We had Ali Gs, Victoria Beckham, Fred Flintstone, Miss World, Ozzy Osbourne and Spider-Man. It was a fantastic spectacle.”
The prom at Canon Maggs, which does not have an unusually prosperous intake, has grown enormously since being introduced four years ago, Steward said. “The parents get together to make it something special,” he said. “I don’t know how they got hold of the cars but we are in the middle of the car industry here, so clearly somebody has good contacts.”
