Assembly ideas and presenting tips
A huge part of the role for teachers is presenting and leading assemblies. It can often be hard to keep assemblies fresh and engaging for pupils. Plus, teachers can struggle to think of assembly ideas through all their lesson planning. Here at Hope, we have created some assembly ideas and presenting tips to help teachers keep assemblies interesting that pupils will pay attention to.
Presenting tips
The key to engaging assemblies is through the way in which they are presented. Teachers need to understand how to present assemblies well. Put into action these presenting tips and see pupils pay attention to the topic as well as talk about it afterwards.
Think about the content
It’s important to think about what content you cover in assemblies. The topic depends on a lot of various factors it could be on some important news or a celebration/festival in the school calendar. Consider what can be talked about in assemblies and what best fits for the time you are hosting one.
This could be as simple as wondering about a big question, learning about the beliefs and cultures of others or can be a more in-depth assembly on a topic such as reflecting the meaning of life.
Plan your content to be relevant, age appropriate and engaging so that children pay attention. Aim to develop their thinking and creativity through one clear message and focus.
Participation
Assemblies are a group experience, so it makes them quite social. When planning your assembly, remember that it shouldn’t just be you talking at pupils. It should also involve pupils actively so consider how to bring participation into the assembly.
When it comes to choosing who to involve in your assembly think about the choice and then respect their individuality and listen to their thoughts. Mix assemblies up between active participation and listening periods so that they don’t become predictable. Therefore, they stay exciting for children.
Introduce singing for assemblies
Singing in assemblies is a rare occurrence these days but used to be an integral part of every assembly. Present the assembly with some singing in it as this helps to build pupils’ confidence, music skills as well as adding diversity into it. Plus, it keeps the assembly interesting for children and they can have a bit of fun with a sing along.
Make sure to perform
As assemblies are held in halls, it is vital for teachers to perform. You have to fill the hall so bear in mind how to project your voice and how your body language comes across. It is important to think about the pace in which you are presenting as it needs to be at a pace children can follow without it dragging on.
Pour plenty of energy into the assembly to capture everyone’s attention. You can even be a bit theatrical without going over the top to get the message across more. Make sure to keep an eye on pupils’ reactions so you can perform to that and change the assembly up if needed.
Plan out timings
Keep assemblies short and sweet, without them being too short. Many teachers make the mistake of planning a thorough and long assembly. Having a long assembly turns an engaged audience into a bored audience. This is where children will get restless and start to fidget whilst zoning out. Remember, you could probably say what is needed in 20 minutes or less.
Be inclusive
Think about being inclusive to make all pupils feel valued and respected. As the school is a support network for children, assemblies are a perfect time to strengthen this. When presenting think about examples you can use and different takes on the subject to include everyone. This will also help children connect to the assembly more.
Be warm and smile
Assemblies can cover all sorts of topics and can sometimes be serious. However, it is important to be warm and smile to your audience no matter the subject. Children are more likely to respond better to a warm personality and smiling and it can often help with the serious topics. Teachers can build rapport with a simple smile and a soft tone of voice.
An advantage to showing a warm personality and smiling is that it can be mirrored by the pupils. So, if you are smiling, children will smile back.
Check behaviour
Like always, children can grow restless, and their behaviour can start turning bad as they act up. Watch out for bad behaviour during assemblies and don’t let any chatting or heckles stop you from presenting. If you are on your own in the assembly, make sure to be tough on any bad behaviour. Remember that you are in control and let the children know this.
Use visual aids
During your presenting, it is crucial to use visual aids. When planning your assembly, think thoroughly about visual aids and where to slot these in. These can be images, GIFs, videos and even reels from social media. As long as the visual content makes sense and enhances your topic, you can use anything. Visual aids help children understand the topic further and keeps it fun.
Gather feedback from colleagues
If any of your colleagues are present during your assembly, ask for their honest feedback on what went well and what may need changing. This will help you to plan future assemblies and present them even better for children to be excited about.
Assembly ideas
The next crucial step to creating informative and entertaining assemblies is to think about the content. It can be hard to think of fresh ideas to discuss especially if you have done a few assemblies already. To help you, we have outlined some assembly ideas based on the seasons and festivals or news.
Festivals and celebrations
Depending on when you are doing your assembly, great topics to cover are any festivals and celebrations upcoming. These can be things such as Diwali, Ramadan, Easter, Christmas, Chinese New Year and Hannukah.
Covering festivals and celebrations is the best way to ensure that all pupils feel included. Plus, these topics allow children to learn about different cultures collectively and become more aware of the differences in everyone. Delve into interesting facts and allow children to ask questions to develop their understanding about various festivals and celebrations. From this knowledge, children can be more accepting of all cultures and make friends easier too.
Winter
As winter kicks in it’s a good idea to do some assemblies based on the season. These can be generic assemblies that can be tweaked to go with an important topic that may need to be covered throughout winter. An example of this could be lightly discussing the increase of cost of living whilst delving into a winter weather assembly.
Some good winter generic topics to cover are preparing for winter weather to ensure children stay safe in bad weather. You could link hibernation to resting and general wellbeing, delving into the importance of looking after yourself and making time for rest. Or you can base some around Christmas with a Christmas countdown and discussing the history.
In the new year, you can do something around new year’s resolutions and bettering yourself or around mental health connecting to blue Monday.
Spring
When Spring comes around topics can be a little lighter with focus on areas such as love and relationships with others to pair with valentine’s day. Explore friendships, family relationships and even romantic relationships.
You can also use Spring assemblies to refresh pupils on changes or procedures such as internet safety or exploring apps as Spring begins not long into the new year. Other areas to cover will be Easter, Shrove Tuesday, world book day and awareness of autism to go with autism awareness day.
Summer
As summer comes around, assemblies can turn more fun before the summer holidays with topics such as things to do over the holidays or how to stay safe in hot weather linking to going on holiday. When you return, summer continues for schools so think about placing a welcome back assembly in. This will set the tone and get children settled in ready to get back to learning.
You can also focus your assemblies on the importance of recycling and saving the planet as recycling week is near this time of year. As well as refreshing pupils on the importance of staying safe walking to school and on the internet.
Autumn
During the Autumn season, assemblies can carry on the protecting the environment theme that begins towards the end of the summer. There are many different areas to explore within that topic that can last a few weeks mixed in with other topics, so no one gets bored. You could even delve into British values within assemblies and get pupils thinking about what Great Britain is all about. Hold a discussion during this assembly too so they can expand their knowledge.
International Peace Day is around this time so it may be a good idea to theme some assemblies around peace and getting along with others. Showcasing the negatives to violence and how children can get along with each other.
We hope these assembly ideas and presenting tips will help you to create fascinating and engaging assemblies that pupils will love. Try some of the assembly ideas out and see how children respond to them, tweak if needed and include what’s going on in the world at that time to further explore topics.
For more teacher advice to benefit your pupils why not check out our fun library activities blog?
