Thoughts on attending my first pre-school entrance ceremony

My daughter is four, and attends a pre-school here in Niigata. Today was the annual "entrance ceremony" day, since the school year here starts in April. I guess I'd assumed that an entrance ceremony was going to be a situation where the children would meet their new room teachers, get acquainted with any new faces in their classes, and get back into the groove with their school routine.

I was shocked then, to get there and realize that the entrance ceremony seemed less about the children and more about ticking bureaucratic boxes (at this point this really shouldn't surprise me, though).

Let me just preface this by saying that my daughter's preschool has children from babies to five year olds attending, so you have some scope for age. The entrance ceremony information said the ceremony would run from 9.30am until 11.30am. 

First annoyance:

The school didn't open the doors until 9.30am on the dot in this situation. No matter that there were families outside waiting with young kids, they didn't let anyone inside the premises until bang-on 9.30. It's been snowing the last couple of days here and it's still cold, so why you wouldn't let people inside was beyond me. Thankfully we just hung out in the car until they opened the doors, but some families probably walked or caught public transport to be there.

Second annoyance:

9.30am isn't actually the "start time" for the ceremony. It's the "gathering time". The gathering time gives you a chance to find a place to sit, but the main event didn't actually start until 10. You'd think that people who deal with children all day would try and minimize the amount of idle time that kids (especially the real young ones) would be dealing with. 

Third annoyance:

This ceremony was not about the kids at all. We sat through an hour of speeches from the principal and other staff. I guess I was expecting a more child focused "first day back at school" feeling, but nope - this was just lots of bowing and lots of long winded drivel. 

I'm just saying...when my four year old - and the rest of the kids there - seemed bored out of their minds, I couldn't really fault them, since as an adult I was feeling the same way.

Please tell me that this is an anomaly and entrance ceremonies aren't always just full of irrelevant, long winded speeches?