School Assembly Planning Checklist
This list will help you make your next school assembly a cinch to plan, and just as easy to pull off. You are a professional, and you can make your next assembly run like a well-oiled machine if you follow these steps to success.
For Assembly Planning
Here are the steps you need to go through for assembly planning. This helps you come up with a game plan so that when the assembly date comes you can just execute, without having to think too hard or stress.
Know who will be attending: you need to know ahead of time exactly who will be attending. Which classes or age groups, which teachers, which administrators and so on.
Choose a date and time with few or no conflicts: make sure that the day and time that you intend to have this assembly has no other commitments for you or anyone that you want to be involved in it. It seems obvious, but you’d be surprised how easy it’s overlooked.
Plan your content: know what the subject of the assembly is, how long it will take, and also what you’ll need to pull it off. Do you just need a microphone and a loudspeaker? Does the school band have to be involved? You had better know these things in advance, so you can plan them accordingly.
Set ground rules: define the parameters and boundaries of the assembly. Duration, attire, and procedures for how it is to be conducted. Make sure to plan for a pre-assembly check, so you know everything is set to go off without a hitch.
Create a schedule: once you understand all the moving pieces, make a schedule of all the relevant events. You’ll have a timetable so you know what has to happen and also when.
Now that you know what will be happening, how, when and where it will happen and who is going to be involved, you can focus on execution. Plan your event, and the event will happen according to the plan.
Now let’s go over a pre-assembly checklist that will help you execute that plan like a well-oiled machine. It won’t ever be perfect…but by chasing perfection, you can catch excellence.
Pre-Assembly Planning
Just before the school assembly, go over a few things to make sure that all the pieces are in place. Just as pre-flight checks are necessary for air travel, you need pre-assembly checks to make sure that everything is ready to go.
These ideas work for ANY event planning, including a school assembly. It’s just that your event is taking place within the confines of the school environment. There are other differences, of course, between the typical corporate event and so on and a school assembly, but almost all of the ideas apply.
First, make sure everyone that is involved is ready prior to the event and more to the point, present and available. You have to rely on other people to make this event a success; they have to be in a position to do so.
Ensure that all equipment, such as audio/visual equipment, is functioning. Also make sure that any materials that are needed – banners, flyers, etc. – are also ready to be deployed or are already put up.
Are there any special guests? Make sure someone is there to receive them and they know who will be receiving them. If you’ve invited a presenter or speaker, they have better be able to find their way in.
Make sure that everyone involved knows the schedule of the event, including teachers and students.
Have a welcome speech or other remarks to make? Make sure you know what they are. Some people are natural public speakers, some people aren’t. Unless you know that you are (and you if you are by now) then maybe you can wing it, but unless you’re great at making speeches on the fly, you had better have a plan in place.
You also need to go over the exit strategy. Know how you’ll be conducting people back to their regularly scheduled activity.
Remember, if you plan your assembly well enough, you’ll avoid a lot of the typical headaches associated with them.