Curriculum
Give Great Assemblies
Plan assemblies that change how pupils think, feel or act, even if standing up in front of the whole school makes you nervous.
- 29 minutes
- 12 modules
- 0.5 CPD hours
- Certificate
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What you'll learn
- Decide what pupils should think, feel or do, and plan backwards from it
- Hook the room before you speak with sound, light or a prop
- Open and close strongly, keeping notices away from both
- Involve pupils through quick polls, their work and their ideas
- Signpost support clearly when an assembly touches a tricky topic
About this course
Teachers who hold a class's attention all day can still dread their turn on the assembly rota. A hall full of faces, sound that may or may not work, and 10 minutes everyone expects to sit through.
Those 10 minutes can do a lot more. Decide the one thing you want pupils to think, feel or do afterwards, then plan backwards from it. Set the scene before anyone sits down, with music, a question on the screen or an intriguing prop. People remember the start and the end best, so keep the notices and the telling-off away from both, and finish on your key message.
You'll also find ways to bring pupils' own voices into the hall, and to give colleagues what they need to follow the message up in class. It's your assembly, too, so it's fine to do it your way.
- For early career teachers, middle leaders and 2 other roles. All phases.
12 modules
Open in order
- 1 min
Introduction
- 2 min
Get the basics right
- 2 min
Plan what you want pupils to feel, think or do
- 2 min
Set the scene as pupils enter
- 5 min
Start strongly
- 4 min
Do it your way …
- 4 min
…But lean too on what works well
- 3 min
Provoke thought and action
- 3 min
Make it about them too
- 4 min
Signpost sources of further support or learning
- 2 min
Go out with a bang not a fizzle
- 2 min
Wrap up