What to bring to your graduation ceremony

Your e-ticket comes first. It appears under My e-Ticket on My Student Record a week before your ceremony; download it to your phone, and print a copy if a backup would settle your nerves.

Your guests need tickets of their own — each graduate can book up to two, at £16 each, for anyone aged two or over, while under-twos sit on a lap for free. Get their tickets to them the night before, especially if they are travelling separately, because on the day you will be at the Owen Building long before they arrive.

Charge your phone fully and bring a portable charger. It holds your ticket, it is how you find your family once you are split across two buildings, and it takes every picture after the official one. The day is longer than it looks on paper, and a flat battery just as everyone wants a group photo is a genuinely miserable way to end it.

And your cap and gown. If you are hiring from us, you will have collected it the evening before or the morning of, so you walk into the Owen Building already dressed and go straight to your photograph instead of queueing for a gown. It comes back to us between 5 and 7.30pm the same day.

That is the whole must-have list. Four things. Sort them the night before and the rest is comfort, photographs, and the small things that make the day run smoothly.

At Sheffield Hallam the official photograph happens first. It is taken at the Owen Building while you gown up — pre-order it through the university's photographer to skip the queue, or order on the day — so arrive ready for it, hair done and cap pinned. The photographs with your family come afterwards, in the foyer at Ponds Forge: the Hallam H, the photo walls, Hercules the dragon. Keep your phone to hand for those.

Carry as little as you can, in a small bag or clutch — reaching into your clothes under a gown is awkward at best, and with no cloakroom at either building, whatever you bring stays with you from the first photograph to the last.

Bring water. Between the gowning, the walk, the ceremony and the photographs you are on your feet far longer than the ceremony itself, and a hall full of people in academic dress gets warm.

Think about your feet. The walk from the Owen Building to Ponds Forge is outdoors, in November, often on wet pavements — heels for the photographs and flats for the walk is the combination that works.

Check the forecast the night before. A Sheffield November is cold, often wet and dark by late afternoon, and part of your day is spent outside between the two buildings. A little preparation is the difference between a miserable photograph and a good one.

And tissues. It gets emotional. No shame in it.

Work backwards from your ceremony time. Be at the Owen Building two hours before it starts, and leave yourself ten to fifteen minutes for the walk to Ponds Forge.

If you do run late, you can still go in until the last graduate is called — you just will not sit with your cohort. Guests do not get that grace: once graduates start crossing the stage, they are not let into the hall.

A few rules are worth passing on. Children under sixteen need an adult with them who is not you — you will be busy crossing a stage. Guests can take photographs from their seats as long as they do not block anyone's view, but nobody may film in the hall.

Your family will not go hungry while they wait. Ponds Forge has a café open from 8am to 6.30pm and an information desk in the foyer, staffed from half an hour before each ceremony to half an hour after; the Owen Building has food and drink at Hallam Central on Level 6.

What to leave at home

A big bag — there is nowhere to leave it, and you would carry it through gowning, the walk, the ceremony and the photographs. Flowers for yourself — people will give you bouquets, and one more thing to hold on top of a gown, a bag and a phone is too many. And any worry about the certificate: nothing is handed to you on stage. It is posted to the address on My Student Record afterwards.