Why I Love Class Assemblies

Sometimes I can be heard muttering under my breath sarcastically, "Oh boy, I love class assemblies!"

The pressure is on.  It has to be the best.  The songs have to be well chosen, brilliantly sung and every child must be singing.  We have high standards in performance.  We expect every child in the class to do something.  In most classes every child acts, sings, recites poetry and sometimes plays instruments.  Gone are the days of class assemblies where a child could just stand up, hold up a picture that could be a dog, horse or monster, and say, "this is a picture wot I drew!"

Now, teachers even write their own scripts.  Over the last few years we've had Dr Who, I'm a Celebrity, Tiger Air, Desert Island Discs and a script about Tudors, written in full rhyming couplets.  Anyone who thinks teachers are not dedicated and creative needs to think about how much time and skill writing in such a way that every child in their class can shine, including jokes for the parents and allowing all the children's work to be shown actually takes.

Sometimes I get a bit grumpy during class assembly season.  It's the pressure.  I feel it too even if it isn't my class.  Supporting 11 classes through their assemblies, helping to choose songs, add instruments and rehearse some performances sometimes leaves me feeling a bit frazzled.  When there are 3 assemblies during a 2 week period I can feel a bit torn between everyone who wants to rehearse at the same time.  And then there is Les Dawson, who insists on making a brief appearance at every assembly.

However hard they might be I find every one truly inspirational.  I am privileged to be able to watch several rehearsals and so I know just how hard each child works.  I know how many rehearsals it takes to make Indiana Jones move across the stage like someone to be reckoned with.  I know how much practice the boy with the slightly camp delivery of his lines needed to sound scary.  I know that getting the coconut player to remember to play her instrument, rather than wear it was a challenge even she thought was impossible.  I know that the child who barely speaks in class stood shouting in the playground to get ready to deliver her line so that she could be heard.  I know that prayers were said to the computer God to make the power-point work properly.  I know that the class teacher probably hasn't slept properly in a week.

I know that I want to burst with pride at each class performance and hope that their parents are equally as proud.

At Christmas I was in the hairdressers listening to a couple of parents moaning about how it was always the same children who get the main roles in the Christmas play and how their darlings are only ever in the choir.  "Billy is a great actor, he could speak but he'll never get a chance while Anita and Freddie are there, they get everything."  I hope Billy gets to perform in a class assembly where every child shines.