How to plan and deliver a good assembly in schools part one

How to plan and deliver a Good Assembly in schools – part one…

Are you a teacher or member of school staff and want to deliver a great assembly? I can help…

Before I was a schools speaker I did hundreds of assemblies, here’s a few tips that you may find helpful…

Invite me to your school I can do motivational talks – http://leejackson.org/education/motivational-schools-speaker-raising-aspirations-resilience/ or teacher training – http://leejackson.org/education/staff-teacher-training-cpd-inset/ or Presentation skills – http://leejackson.org/business/presentation-skills-training-masterclass-coaching/

assembly in schools education-motivational-speaker

Ninety per cent of the assembly in schools I have done have included some sort of game which will require volunteers. The reason I do that is not because the game is significant, although often the games are related to the subject, however loosely. But if you get young people or their friends helping out with a game, they get a little bit of stardom that will hold their attention for the few minutes afterwards when you deliver a short talk. I reckon you have to earn your right to speak.

I believe most schools talks should be based around prizes! It is a great incentive. So if you get volunteers in assembly make sure they have a prize. Even if it is a competition and somebody wins, make sure that all of the volunteers get a prize as well. It is important to value them not as winners and losers but as people. How you treat volunteers and people in assemblies is just as important as the things that you say.

I was taking an assembly in front of 600 pupils once, the whole of key stage 3 (Years 7–9), and I asked for two volunteers for a quiz. All the hands shot up as usual from the younger pupils and I chose a girl and a boy. Because they were a fairly new year group I didn’t know them very well, and as I chose the boy and he stood up I suddenly noticed that all the teachers started talking to each other and there was a lot of mumbling. As he got to the front it was apparent the lad I had chosen had special needs. All the teachers and pupils were watching me very carefully to see how I dealt with him. Because it was a quiz I did go through it with him very carefully, but he wasn’t able to answer any questions and the girl won. It was so important that I honour this lad, who had had the guts to put his hand up and come out in front of all the people in his year, so I made sure he got a prize and a big round of applause after- wards.

• Choose volunteers carefully. If you get no hands going up then ask one of the teachers to choose for you, and that will remove any embarrassment and any of the concerns you may have over the volunteers. I must admit I tend to live a little bit more by the seat of my pants and like to see what will happen.
Assembly in schools
• Get people to give a round of applause as the volunteers come out to the front and make sure they get a round of applause at the end, so they go out feeling really good about themselves
• Be aware that if you do decide to do a game in assembly, not all games that people do in youth groups are appropriate for schools! Large banana splits, egg-related games and other mad things are not appropriate for school mainly because of the mess and the nightmare you have afterwards cleaning it up.
If I have got a lot of equipment to set up I often ask the kids to help me. They usually like to be involved, and helping to press ‘play’ on the CD player, for example, means they get to sit on a chair instead of on the floor!

The time before and after assembly in schools is just as important as the assemblies themselves, so be aware of the way you treat people as you set up and pack things away.

Instead of talking about a random concept from faith, life or science, it is much better to make it personal and talk about your life, your job, your dog, the sports that you play, TV that you watch, and the things that happen in your family life. I was doing an assembly once and decided to add an illustration I hadn’t planned on. I started talking about me dating Clare before we were married. I looked across the assembly hall and realised all eyes were transfixed on me! I discovered the power of personal story that day.

There is a danger, of course, that you could share too much, so be careful, but it is much more interesting to young people than ‘this book says’.

Everyone has their own style, but the following is a general pattern that I work to when doing assemblies. (Remember in secondary schools you usually get 5 to 10 minutes and 10 to 25 minutes in primary school.)

Intro myself (and team if needed)
Game, prop illustration or video clip
Short talk
One-line conclusion / challenge

Expect the unexpected and be flexible. I make sure I plan a ten-minute assembly for a secondary school, but I have sometimes been given just two or three minutes so something has to go!

Be yourself and enjoy the opportunity. Start collecting and writing fun stories and anecdotes as they happen and build up a bank of resources.

assembly in schools (c)  www.leejackson.biz

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