When Do You Promote?

I've helped out a lot this summer for my church's Sunday School program. The "School Year" teachers get to take the summer off, and volunteers were scarce.

An issue that cropped up for me is one that you might find familiar. As the kids signed in each week, they were to mark their grade level; we used last year's grade, or as I started calling it later in the summer, "the grade you've graduated from." (That has a nice positive ring to it, don't you think?)

Then in mid-August the kids went back to school, so the DCE (my wife) changed the sign-in sheets to request "the grade you are now attending." That's great!

It strikes me, though, that a case could be made for promoting students at the beginning of the summer, just after they have completed their year of school. If your students meet in standard graded classrooms through the summer, they might meet their new teacher and use the next grades material. It might be a bit more work in the spring, but less work to start in the fall. The students might have a slight, positive boost in attitude. And you could still have a Rally Day or Christian Education Festival in the fall even though the students have already been promoted.

What do you think?

When do you promote your Sunday School students to the next grade? Why?

What are the pros and cons of promoting the first week of June? The first week of September?

Thanks for all you do to teach God's children His Word!