If time is taken out for school spaces being used for exams and other special events then most schools or year groups will have at least 25 assemblies to plan for in a year. I know that some have many more than this, it it’s twice a week that could be 50. It’s hard to think of this amount of themes and topics to deliver in a range of different ways that will enage the young people at school.

Here are some ideas for including different themes in school assemblies.

1 - One assembly topic can look at a variety of themes. For example in the Nelson Mandela secondary assembly the themes include racism, rights, resilience and forgiveness all with some history mixed into to a very powerful story. There are a whole range of themes in the series of assemblies about Inspirational People for Primary and Secondary schools

2 - Use topics that are relevant to young peoples lives. A lot of young people lives are lived on line today there are a lot of values and themes that can be looked at from the perspective of our online world. Our online resilience assemblies for secondary schools examine how to look after yourself online but can include topics like decision making, image and happiness at the same time.

3 -The flip side of the first two ideas is to focus on one thing that will deal with a lot of issues students might face. Resilience (primary) and Mindset (secondary) are obvious ones but themes like attendance and stress will help students with a variety of different challenges.

4 - Have a fun assembly about something uncoventional that has a more light hearted message. The Story of Kyle McDonald shows how one man swapped a red paperclip for a house in fourteen swaps. It’s light hearted and compelling but it also shows what can happen when you have a big ideas and act on it. It here for Primary and Secondary schools. The whackiest of ideas can capture a child’s mind and they might remember it for a long time.

5 - Use a film clip or a YouTube Video to capture their imagination and bring in a powerful topic at the same time. There is a good clip from Kung Fu Panda that can be used to introduce the idea of mindfulness and another on bullying from the same film.