Thanks Irene for another suggestion. I’m a Baby Boomer and grew up in an Australian capital city.
Graduating or marking a significant milestone has become commonplace now. Last year I attended a grandchild’s Kindy Graduation evening but I don’t think anything was done to mark early progressions to higher grades when I was a child. At the end of Primary School we were awarded the, “Progress Certificate” if we passed. My report cards show marks so I suppose we must have been tested.
When I was attending Secondary School the final Assembly for the year was a marathon event with the best reader in the class reading out the best essay and the person deemed the best at reciting her chosen poem performed that too. Every class at every year level was represented.
The third, fourth and fifth years of Secondary School were called, “Intermediate, Leaving and Leaving Honours”. At the end of each year a dance was held for each of these year levels and as far as I remember that was the only “celebration” of another year being completed. Being shy I didn’t enjoy the occasions at all.
The first actual Graduation Ceremony of my own was when I received my Diploma of Teaching. All the girls had to wear white dresses and I guess the boys wore suits. The ceremony was held at Bonython Hall on North Terrace, Adelaide. My parents would have attended but I don’t have any photos.
Photo courtesy https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8528680
My next two awards I had posted to me and I didn’t attend the presentations but when I graduated again I wanted to inspire my children so I decided to attend the ceremony. They came to the Festival Theatre to watch, I think what they actually felt was that graduating ceremonies involve lots of speeches and hours of standing around!
Musings of a Retiring Person 
Graduating from kindergarten. Hard to believe although I know one of my nephews going through the Swiss primary system seems to have an event each year to mark progressing to the next grade. I agree. Nothing like that when I was at school. At least you did have a dance to mark the occasion. Similar to your end of year assembly we did have an annual speech night that awarded mainly books to those that topped the grade, most improved and some other such awards. There was a small amount of entertainment usually via the music department but it was a lot of speeches – a bit like your final graduation. i still have feelings of foreboding when attending such events that the speeches will be long and boring like they were at school. Thanks for joining in.
Acknowledging graduations with a ceremony is a long held practice here in Canada. I think I’ve attended (especially during University) any that were offered. The diplomas and pictures are somewhere in my collection of boxes, but the experiences live on in my memory!
I was surprised there were no photos of my first graduation, it must have been a sight with so many girls/women dressed in white all lined up to be presented with their Diplomas. Maybe my parents weren’t there for some reason.