School assembly shows are fun. But school assembly planning will take your blood, sweat, and tears. Planning any type of event, for that matter, is a difficult task. But if we break it down into smaller tasks and learn how to successfully carry out these tasks, planning, and execution will become relatively easy.

You probably know how to conduct a school assembly, but assembly shows are different. If you are in the school’s administration or are a teacher in the school, or are the head of the student council, there may come a day when you will have to organize a school assembly show.

No need to worry, though.

In this school assembly checklist, we will walk you through all the steps you need to take to deliver a successful assembly program.

How to plan a successful assembly show?

1. Understand your audience

Is your crowd the students of elementary school? Have you invited their parents as well? As a school assembly planner, you have to start with understanding your audience.

Why did we start with this?

The rest of the plan is based on what kind of audience you are catering to. Understanding your crowd can help you give your school assembly show a purpose and a direction. This will enable you to communicate with the crowd in a thoughtful and understandable manner.

For example, let’s assume that your crowd for this show is elementary school kids. In this case, your entire program should be more engaging and the number of “speeches” should be kept at a minimum.

You can include an interactive game, movie, and fun activity so that all the information that you want to provide reaches them in an entertaining way. You would also like to keep the language simple and comprehensible for these kids.

2. Theme

Once you know who your audience is, you can decide on a relevant theme. It could be anything relevant to the students. Some examples would be anti-bullying, Earth Day celebration, saving trees, cultures, math, science, space, and much more.

One thing you have to remember here is the audience’s age and the subjects they are studying. Try to establish a link between your school assembly theme and whatever knowledge they already have.

3. Make the team and distribute the work

Teachers Planning A School Assembly

You don’t need to plan the entire assembly performance on your own. Make a small group of organizers with your colleagues from the administration or fellow teachers. You can also make student leaders a part of the planning.

It is great to have someone representing the students so that it is easy to understand if the program will work or it won’t. Moreover, the student gets to learn how to manage an event, and you may even get some unique assembly ideas from the students.

Once you have your team ready, start distributing the work. Understand their abilities and capabilities and delegate tasks that bring the best out of their talent. Make sure there is coordination among the group members with regular check-ins. This way, you can easily ensure that the entire assembly planning group is on the same page at all times.

4. Decide on the speaker or performer

school assemblies

The next thing on the list for you and your team is deciding on the main speaker or performer for your school assembly. Students don’t want to listen to their teachers and other school members all the time. At least for the school assemblies, it is a great idea to find special guests.

Besides providing students with a fresh change of pace, an external speaker or performer may also be able to provide a unique point of view on the focus of the assembly performance. This may help you improve the impact of the performance on the students.

They should be someone who can communicate well with students. The most important thing here is not how much knowledge, degrees, and PhDs your speaker has; it is how well they can talk with your audience and encourage interaction.

Alternatively, you can hire school performers. There are many that do this for you, and they know how to make the show fun, entertaining and informative.

5. Inform the school

Assembly planning for schools might require some permissions. After you have decided on the theme and other things, make sure you get administrative approval for doing this show. Let your principal and other higher-ups know what you are planning. Once you have the approval, you can start making a management plan and implement it. Make sure you keep the school authorities in the loop with all the updates regarding the school assembly show.

6. Make a list of people attending the assembly

Planning A School Assembly

Make a list of all the people attending the show. This would include the students, your staff members, members of the school community, the guest speakers or performers, and parents, if required. Once you have this list, you get a clear idea of the number of people attending the show. The list will also help you send invitations.

7. Decide the time and venue

Now that you know the number of people attending your show you can decide on a suitable venue and time. Make sure the timings are best suited for everyone. When you choose the venue, think about how much space the show will need. Most performers will specify the space they need.

Your venue could be the school assembly hall or, if the audience is small, you can make space in the classrooms as well. If the number of people attending the show is less, then it is better to have a smaller space as your venue. A small crowd in a small place will be able to experience better engagement. A small crowd in a large space usually translates to less fun and interaction.

8. Fix your budget

The main challenge in organizing any event is making a plan that fits within the budget. A part of your budget is already dedicated to the speaker.

After that, you have to smartly decide how to take the next steps without exceeding the budget. If you have a bigger budget, you can do more things get more creative. Having said that, a small budget doesn’t have to lead to a bad show. You just have to cut the cost of unnecessary things and be a little resourceful and creative.

For instance, many performers will also bring their own equipment for their performance. Working with such performers can help you save on the cost of renting equipment. Similarly, you can use props used in the other events that may have taken place in the past.

9. Decide the flow of the event

Every school assembly show has a flow. At this point, you should decide how your show will proceed. Here’s an example of a simple flow of the event.

Assembly starts ( 10:00)

song/prayer  ( 10:15)

The host welcomes everyone (10:25)

Welcome speech (10:30)

The host introduces the guest (10:45)

The guest takes over ( 11:00)

Activity 1

Activity 2

Activity 3

Vote of thanks (12:30)

The host concludes the show (12:45)

This is a very basic flow of events, but it should be enough to give you a fair idea of how to create the flow of your own assembly. Get creative with all the activities and come up with great ideas.

10. Create invitation cards

Now that you have decided the theme, time, venue, and flow of the event, it is time to make the invitations. Don’t reveal too much about the event on the invitation cards. But you will have to put something that will make your audience curious about it. You can also send separate invitations for parents and students. Most parents would like to know who the speaker is and about the flow of the event. Send a formal invitation on behalf of the school to all the guests, teachers, administrators, and other staff members.

11. Arrange all the hardware required

“I am sorry for the inconvenience. We have some technical difficulties.”

You don’t want to end up saying this line in your show.

Ask your speaker or performer what they are going to need. How many microphones do they need? Do they need projectors and any other visual equipment? Make sure your sound system is suited to their needs. Inform the people who manage the sound systems about all the requirements beforehand to avoid making changes later during the show.

Anything that you may require for the activities, arrange those things. Get lights and keep the camera ready for recording. Make a separate checklist of all the hardware that you will use so that you don’t miss anything.

12. Set the stage

Set the Stage

It is time to set the stage now. All your stage decorations have to be according to the theme that you have decided. Arrange the chairs near the performance space. Arrange the speakers and mics and all the technical equipment. Make sure all the audio and visual equipment is working properly.

13. Get feedback

Though this is not a part of the planned event, it is important to collect feedback from the audience so that you can rectify your mistakes in the next assembly. For parents, you can distribute questionnaires or ask them to send you a review on your email.

Conclusion

Assembly programs are a great way to give students a break from the classroom, class tests, and all the things that they think are boring. Planning school assemblies and assembly performances are as difficult as planning any other event. An event that is planned properly runs smoothly. We hope that our guide will help you create the best assembly performance for your school.