We all know school proms are a big deal these days, but some students have really gone all-out in recent years.
The high school prom is no longer just a rite of passage celebrated in the US. Thousands of Greater Manchester children - or more likely their parents - now splurge out on prom dresses, tuxedos and limousines.
While some are happy to splash the cash with costs reaching thousands of pounds, some students take a different, weirder approach - although definitely no less expensive. Over the years, some of the region's pupils have shunned the stretch-limos, choosing to announce their arrival more creatively.
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So to celebrate this special date in the school calendar, we've taken a look back at some of the most unusual ways Greater Manchester students have opted to arrive for the end-of-term ball. Dating from 2010 to 2017, here are four ways students have celebrated that are worthy of a round of applause.
A fleet of mobility scooters
Yes that's right, 2015 saw the hilarious moment a group of teenagers made their glamorous arrival at their school prom - on mobility scooters. John Davidson, George Greenhalgh, Alex Mee, Matthew Bodkin, Jake Wright, and Adam Lee, aged 15 and 16, were filmed arriving to Castlebrook High, Bury for the event celebrating the end of term.
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The group of six friends were seen dressed in sharp suits and sunglasses trundling up Parr Lane surrounded by traffic. A member of the crowd let off a smoke bomb and a crowd cheered as they drove up along a red carpet.
The school leavers were then transported to a coach for the prom celebration which took place at the Dukenhalgh Hotel.
Matthew Bodkin, former head boy, said: "We hired mobility scooters instead of limos or sports cars because we wanted to do something a bit different to the norm. However, we thought that instead of trying to impress people or go over the top with helicopters etc we would go for something a little more humorous and out of the ordinary.
"This is when, along with the help of Alex’s dad Aidy Mee, we came up with the idea of coming on mobility scooters. The horns, music, sunglasses and smoke grenades came to us later and were effects that we thought would add more humour, drama and irony to the big arrival as our mode of transport was mobility scooters which are traditionally associated with older and less able people than young high school goers."
Arriving in a coffin
I don't know what it was about 2015 but it was the same year a school pupil staggered his classmates when he arrived at his end of year prom - in a coffin! Simon May joined his classmates from Alder Grange Community and Technology School, in Rossendale, at their Year 11 prom at Higher Trapp Country House Hotel in eccentric style.
Some pupils turned up in sports cars, some arrived in convertibles, some even showed up in police cars and on motorbikes all dressed to impress for the biggest night in their school calendar before going their separate ways to different colleges. But Simon stole the limelight and decided he wanted to do something a little bit different.
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He arrived in a coffin inside a hearse escorted by his older brother Ethan, also a former pupil of the school. Simon, 16, from Hall Carr in Rawtenstall, said the idea came from his brother.
He said: "It was Ethan who suggested it, he’s an apprentice at an undertakers and he asked if I wanted to go to my prom in a coffin. I said yes, and the undertakers that he works for put him in touch with a hire company in Manchester for a hearse."
Simon said he told a few people about his idea. "I told a couple of friends that I was going to do it but I don’t think they believed me until I actually turned up in it," he said.
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Simon, who was leaving Alder Grange to go on to study graphic design, said his grand entrance provoked a mixed reaction.
"Nobody seemed to be offended, some of the teachers from Alder Grange were there as well and the ones that I spoke to said they thought it was a good idea," he said.
"I wanted to do something that hadn’t been done before."
Arriving in six luxury cars making a Hip-Hop video
In 2017, a suave teenager stole the show at his high school prom after his brother hired him a fleet of supercars worth half a MILLION pounds and a producer to make a hip-hop-style video. Amir Kayani rented SIX luxury motors - including a £350,000 Rolls-Royce - as a birthday present for 16-year-old brother Zain’s prom in Bolton.
The youngster’s journey from his home to the formal dinner at Bolton Wanderers' Macron Stadium was captured by a professional production company, armed with swanky HD cameras and smoke bombs for the cars.
Sharp-suited Zain’s £300 video shows him and seven pals enjoying their big day like celebrities. Zain - a supercar fanatic - said: "Prom is a once-in-a-lifetime thing. I wanted to make it look big and do it with style.
"It was the last day I was going to see everyone and all my friends and family were all there as well. It was a super day. I had my friends and my brothers in the car with me.
"I rode in three cars throughout the video – a Maserati, a Mitsubishi Evo and a Rolls-Royce. I just felt like 'wow'."
Hired a London double-decker bus
In 2010, it was all aboard for a night out as youngsters travelled to their school prom in a big red bus. The Year 11 students from Offerton High School, Stockport, hired the London double-decker for the end of year bash, held at Cottons in Knutsford.
It was organised by Chantelle Francis who had got the idea from family friends who had used the bus to get to their wedding. Chantelle, 15, said: "There was so many of us that I would have been really expensive to hire a limo and everyone really liked it.
"And when we arrived a people were giving quite admiring glances. A lot of my friends get the bus to school in the morning but thought this was much better and with it being a double decker we got to sit on the top deck.
"It was great to see the other motorists looking at it."
Do these school prom stories awaken any memories for you? Let us know in the comments section below.
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