A Hymn, A Prayer And A Telling Off

What’s the purpose of an assembly? For Will Ryan, it can be used to change the entire ethos of the school...

I remember it like yesterday. It was the unexpected first question I received during a deputy headship interview: “A hymn, a prayer and a telling off – is that the typical school assembly?” Prior to that question, I had led many assemblies without really considering their significance. I can’t remember my fudged answer, but it made me think.

Thirty years after the botched interview, I believe that when schools use this time fully they create wonderful citizens for the future. But to achieve this, assemblies must be integrated into the lifeblood of the school and aligned with any aims, rules, prayers or mission statements that exist. I learned this the hard way when I moved into my second headship. Behaviour and pupil attitudes were deeply worrying – disintegrating around lunchtime as the dinner ladies arrived. Mrs Tattersall was their leader. Every day she patrolled the playground arresting unruly children – at which point attitudes deteriorated, leading to lost teaching time as staff picked up the pieces.

Several strategies were introduced to resolve the issue, with assemblies taking on a significant role in the creation of a learning community in which everybody had a duty to achieve and help others achieve.

Each assembly related to one of five school rules that stressed what children should do in order to become responsible learners with the ability to succeeded in both the present and the future. The rules were devised in consultation with pupils and were deliberately catchy and memorable. Assemblies encouraged learners to explore ‘right’ from ‘wrong’, what is ‘fair’ and ‘unfair’ or what is ‘beautiful’ and what is ‘ugly’. The underlying message was that there is more in this world that unities us than divides us; assemblies were never used as a forum to deliver school notices.

I loved leading assemblies in this style and so when I was asked to write a book on the subject (21st Century Assemblies), I quickly signed on the dotted line. Young people desperately want to make a difference to our troubled world and so I set out to develop a range of ideas that could be used to explore significant issues at a global, national and local level. The resulting themes cover child slavery, sweatshops, rising populations, global warming, wind farms, and child homelessness. There’s even a debate about the ethics behind ‘Buy one get one free’.

So if you want the recipe for gold-standard assemblies, try following the tips below:

* Meet with children to establish what they think about behaviour and attitudes in school, establishing when they feel safe and when they feel worried. Also consider what makes children proud (or ashamed) of their school.

* Then work with the learners and adults to create a handful of school rules or values that emphasise what children should do. They need to be catchy and memorable. You could even create a school prayer relating to these rules.

* Now make these rules run through the school like the letters on a stick of rock. This could be through displays, circle times and especially assemblies.

* Make sure assemblies build from emotional hooks and explore real issues, which are presented in a twenty-first century context where the children feel they can bring about change. For instance, you could ask children to consider the current world population (circa seven billion). What problems does an increasing population introduce, and how might we solve these? Should we celebrate the birth of the world’s seven billionth person or should we be worried? What promise would children make the other 6,999,999,999 people in the world?

* Ensure that assemblies make the best use of every second and that pupils are partners in the learning process.

* Make full use of new technologies (e.g. tablet computers for research) whilst remembering that we all love a good story. Many stories are best told rather than read. The children will love it when you make up the story.

* Conclude by referring back to which school rules have been covered.

* Six words is deemed to be the fewest you can use to create a story, so try asking the children to tell the story of the assembly in just half a dozen powerful words.

I hope you have the same fun with the children that I did.

About the author

Will Ryan has worked in schools in Rotherham for over 30 years as a teacher, headteacher and local authority adviser. He is a speaker and Associate of Independent Thinking Ltd.