This article delves deeper into the detail of 25 interesting fun facts about the first day of school. Read till the end to know how to make this day interesting for kids in 2025!
Primary education is important for the social, emotional and academic development of a child. The UK government report titled Schools, Pupils and Their Characteristics for the academic year 2023/24 shows that 18,200 new students have started coming to the England schools from the previous year.
However, this special day isn’t without its hurdles. For young children, the first day of school can be a hectic experience, filled with uncertainty and new routines. The Guardian reports that nearly a third of secondary school pupils in the UK feel stress and anxiety so intense that they sometimes avoid school altogether.
Yet, alongside these challenges, countless interesting and surprising facts about starting school reveal the excitement and unique aspects of this early educational journey. Let’s explore the updated list of fun and fascinating details for students who are starting th
How Do You Feel on the Very First Day of Your School?
It is normal to feel a large and diverse range of emotions on the first day of school. The most common and prominent ones of all the emotions felt on that day are anxiety, fear and nervousness. All these emotions are felt and expressed due to the following reasons:
- Fear: You might experience the feeling of dread because school is a new experience for you. Making new friends and adjusting to new routines can be quite intimidating.
- Nervousness: The nervousness is usually due to the anxiety of being in a new environment.
- Excitement: The excitement usually stems from the feeling of seeing new friends and learning things that will be new to you.
Know that it is completely normal to experience a rush of feelings when it’s the first day of school. Starting a new school presents students with a lot of opportunities for growth and learning. You should be sure that you will be welcomed by a cheerful smile from your teachers, who will be there to make your first day at school better for you.
A Comprehensive List of 25 Fun Facts About the First Day of School
The number one day at school can be really intimidating for the students. Getting introduced to the staff, meeting new kids, and exploring new learning opportunities can be tough for young kids. There are a lot of fun facts about the day as it brings several memories to cherish to the minds of the learners.
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Coming back to the key topic, here are the top 25 interesting and surprising fun facts about the first day at school:
- According to Coddy Games, around 2.4% of students around the globe suffer from Didaskaleinophobia. It is the fear of school. Parents of such kids and usually the entire family struggle to deal with this phobia. It can affect the kids really badly.
- Kids Play and Create mentions that an average American family spends around $500-$700 every year for shopping back-to-school things. They also spend over 8 billion dollars on back-to-school shopping every year. The sum is large and it shows the excitement of parents for their kids going back to school.
- Parents and kids feel the same amount of anxiety and nervousness when it comes to the first day of kids at school. They have anticipations about how the day go, and then they also are apprehensive about different kinds of things. Some are afraid that their day might not be good enough.
- As per Blue Water Credit, 25% of the overall population in the US is above 3 years of age. These kids attend school each year and then get promoted to the next classes. The US prioritise the education and training of new learners so that they can polish their skills and grow up to become active members of society.
- As reported by Kids Play and Create, the US has approximately 480,000 school buses that daily bring the kids to school and take them back. These buses are yellow because the yellow colour can get more highlighted than other colours. Other drivers can easily notice them as they stand out.
- 59% of the students around the globe, as per Coddy Games, do not attend school when they are at the age of primary school. It happens due to multiple factors; the unemployment of the parents and their inability to afford the school expenses is one of the major reasons why this happens.
- As per surveys, the 5 worst kinds of expectations from the kids of an elementary school include the submission of homework on time, switching schools, having to get up early in the morning, and regular testing of concepts and the subject of mathematics. All of these activities appear as a nightmare to the students.
- Several behavioural counsellors recommend that parents should be careful that their kids have finished the sleep of a good night and that they have eaten a healthy breakfast on their first day at school. Then, they should come forward to show a positive attitude about school, hence fostering a good impression of students about their academic institution.
- Before the erasers were invented, a rolled-up piece of white bread was used to get rid of the markings of pencils. The teachers initially used to resist the use of erasers in the classroom because they believed it could encourage the students to make further mistakes in the classroom.
- Another interesting fact about the first day of kids at school, according to Blue Water Credit, is that the average backpack of students is 20% of their entire body weight. The percentage of that weight should be kept below 10%, and it must not be able to overburden students with their weight.
- In the US, the oldest public school is the Boston Latin School, which was established in 1635. The first five people to go to that school were the ones who signed the Declaration of Independence. Their names are John Hancock, Robert Treat Paine, Samuel Adams, William Hopper and Benjamin Franklin.
- The tradition of giving your teachers an apple on the first day of school originates from Denmark in the 16th century. The teachers back then did not earn enough to be able to afford decent food, so that parents would send apples to teachers via their kids. Hence, it’s now a tradition to gift the teachers an apple when it’s school time.
- According to Do Something, the average day in school is 6.8 hours long, and in Finland, it is around 5 hours long. In Taiwan, you can expect the day to be 8.5 hours long. Depending on the region, students may have to spend long days in the school; hence, parents should mentally prepare their kids for such long stays.
- About 1 in every 12 children between the ages of 6 and 11 have to repeat a grade, while more than 1 in a total of 10 kids will have to repeat at least one grade; they usually have the age bracket of 12 to 17. The repetition of grades sharpens the skills of students. (Source: Blue Water Credit)
- According to Today’s Parent, the summer vacation in Chile lasts from the middle of December to the early season of March. The kids get a break of 12 weeks. In Germany, they only have a short vacation of six weeks. In Ethiopia, the vacation season usually lasts from 12-15 weeks, depending on the school.
- As per Beano, the smallest school in the world had just one student. Alpette is located 25 miles away from the Italian city of Turin. The only student of that school was Sofia Viola who had a teacher named Isabell. Safe to say that there will be no complaints of Sofia talking to other pupils in the classroom!
- If you want to have the shortest academic year, go to France. The academic year there starts in August and ends in June. However, the days spent in the school are quite long for the students. For students who want to enjoy a short school span, France is an ideal destination.
- As per New2NL, most students start their first day at school after their 4th birthday. This means that every person at the school welcomes a new classmate several times during an academic year. For them, the first day of secondary school only begins when they have turned 12.
- According to The Fact Site, the students in Japan have the habit of cleaning their school by themselves. At the end of every school day, they take out all the trash, sweep all the floors clean and even make sure that all the restrooms are quite clean when the day ends.
- The first day at school for the kids in Germany starts with a long cone of cardboard. This tradition started in the 19th century, and the long cardboard of students often comes filled with toys, candies and all kinds of supplies in school. These gifts are usually grown on trees, and the kids pick them up when it’s their first day at school.
- The school uniforms to be worn during the stay at the academic institution were invented some 500 years ago in England. The school students still wear the same kind of uniforms today.
- Some kids in Bangladesh are taught and given all their education in floating schools. It’s because, during the monsoon season in the country, it becomes very difficult for students to go to school due to all the destruction and floods they bring. Solar batteries power the boats, and they are linked to the internet.
- According to The Fact Site, wine used to be served at lunchtime, and all students above the age of 14 could drink wine at school. It was made common by a propaganda committee so that the kids could get accustomed to the taste of wine.
- The students were allowed to make rules in the democratic schools. Their voices used to have the same power as that of a teacher. However, the rules for it differed from school to school.
- Another interesting fun fact about the first days of students at school is that in Colombia, some children have to go to school by using a zipline. It hangs around 229 meters off the ground and carries students and other people to their destinations.
5 Best Activities to Try on First Day of School
As a teacher, whether it is your first day at school or you have been teaching for years now, the first day of a new batch is going to be full of anxiety for you. No matter how prepared you might be, it can be quite difficult for you to break the ice with new students. The nervousness is the same for both the teachers and the kids alike.
The uncertainty of students about teachers, friends and schoolwork can make them quite stressful. Here are some fun activities to try with the primary school students on their first day.
1. Would You Rather’ Questions
On their first day in school, as a teacher, you can guide the students and stimulate healthy debates among them. Here are some of the ‘Would You Rather’ games that can be played by students on the first day of their school, as shared by Prodigy Games. This set of questions will surely get the classroom talking healthily to each other.
- Would you rather like to play games indoors or outdoors?
- Would you rather see a circus performance or a fireworks display?
- Will you want to visit an international space station for a month or live in an underwater hotel?
- Would you rather go to a water park or go skiing?
To keep the entire class on the same level, consider preparing a few questions in the printed form. When you distribute these printable papers in the class, it keeps the kids engaged and helps them retain their focus on the classroom activities. This activity can help students write interpretive essays in future.
2. Thanks for the Compliment!’
This light-hearted icebreaker can encourage the students to share good things and boost their confidence. Every student tape a blank page to their back and goes to classmates so that they can write one nice thing about the student.
After the class is finished, the students remove all their papers and read the compliments that they have gotten on the first day of their class. As a teacher, you can review with the students what a compliment is and ensure that all compliments that you have got are actually appropriate in nature.
This can encourage students to say nice things about each other and also help them be on cordial terms with each other. Furthermore, this act will let them make friends in the classroom, and they will like coming to school.
3. Find a Friend’ Game
This is basically an activity that makes the learners quite comfortable with their new classmates. To play this, the students get some worksheets first a list of topics. The popular topics mentioned on the list may include the following:
- Sports
- Games
- Foods
- Any other thing or activity that may interest the new students
The teachers will have to distribute this worksheet among the students and give them at least five minutes to pinpoint their favourite categories. Once the sheets have been collected, you, as a teacher, can pair up the kids based on their priorities. This can give them a natural talking point and help them find out what all of them have in common.
It can result in students sparking new friendly interactions and making their stay at school ten times lovelier than before. You should note that the entire thing about the ‘find a friend’ game may work out best when these circumstances are fulfilled:
- Students can list the names of each classmate only for one time on the worksheet.
- The names of the students should be spelt correctly. They can ask the fellows to spell their names correctly when it’s time to write names on the sheet.
- This is an ideal event for the teachers to encourage students to show their best handwriting style and hence make them prepared for the academic year.
4. Student Surveys
It’s better for students to conduct surveys for the assessment and collection of information about a wide variety of topics. These topics can relax the new students and help them be open to each other. You can also ask them questions like what their preferred seating arrangements are and what are the ways they should be doing group work and then individual work.
Also, they should do things to control the levels of noise in the classroom. This information can give you know-how about the current trends in the classroom environment. You should see if this data can be used for the following purposes:
- Conducting assessments
- Evaluation of the learning environment
- Giving different instructions
Furthermore, you will also be able to measure the overall temperament of the class and the students you have. When you know about the aptitude of different learners, you can guide and teach them in the best possible way. These surveys are important for judging what kind of students you have.
5. Classroom Scavenger Hunts
Sending the students on a scavenger hunt can assist them in getting to know each other in a friendly way and provide them with a new learning space. The ideal thing to do here will be to give the students with several printouts of the classroom, hence leaving space for them to know where they can expect each item.
When the hunt has been completed, the students will know of several places where they can find hidden objects in the classroom. The teachers can make a list of items or even download it from the internet. Overall, this game helps students get an idea about the different parts of their classroom and keeps them engaged in meaningful activities.
Conclusion
This was all about the 25 interesting yet surprising fun facts about the first day of school in 2025. Since we have also discussed the activities that teachers can do to make the first day of kids better at school, you might have found it a helpful read.
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Lastly, you can pair kindness with fun and be lenient with the kids, as this is going to be a new world for them. Make a list of how you can make the first day of kids quite fun for the students and put all these tips into practice to achieve your desired results.