To ask if non-British schools have assemblies?

[scalt]

I've heard that in some parts of the world, people are baffled by the idea of a whole school being gathered together several times a week; and when assemblies appear on TV or in films, some non-British viewers don't understand this idea at all. In school fiction such as Harry Potter, or the Chalet School, the idea that the whole school is often together in one place to be addressed by the head teacher seems odd to other countries.

Can anyone who went to school abroad say whether they had regular assemblies, like the British do?

Sweden - no regular assemblies although the whole school gathers around twice a year - usually
Saint Lucia's Day in mid December
Last Day of Summer Term in the second week of June

They don't seem to have assemblies in Sweden and even the big gatherings a couple of times a year as mentioned by Lunde splits the school in to 2 groups (younger years and older years) at my sons' school, maybe that varies by size of school though? They are more celebrations than boring old assemblies. They do have class samling same as in Denmark.

Another BIG difference, is that there is no streaming, and far less planning and reporting for teachers. The class has a textbook per subject, the teacher has the additional teacher’s book that goes with the class book, and the planning is already done, so the teacher can focus on teaching and correcting.

Thanks for the replies so far. One thing I've noticed about fictional school assemblies (and probably some real ones too) is how they are sometimes used to humiliate individual pupils: think how much this happens in Harry Potter: and in countries where they don't have assemblies, they read this, and find it baffling.

That's quite a jump from fact to fiction.
I taught in The UK and Melbourne for 40+ years and never encountered or heard of an assembly where students were humiliated at all, either singly or in groups.

I taught in Melbourne: year level assemblies and whole school assemblies twice a term. Too many UK schools to trawl through.

We had one a week in Canada, but it was a smaller school (secondary). They were quite enjoyable because they were partly student-led. Kids would do comedy sketches (pre-rehearsed), musical performances or speeches. If you wanted help with your club or fundraiser, you'd get up and ask. It was seen as more of a school community-building exercise - a view my DCs' UK schools don't appear to share.

@scalt that's a strange view of assemblies (the humiliating pupils thing).
I have never ever known that happen.

My experience is from two Scandinavian countries and two Central European countries. No assemblies at any schools - and no school uniform and no traffic jams outside schools as the kids get themselves to school either on foot or by bus.

You do you understand that there various ways in which the Harry Potter books differ from real life?

British assemblies are strongly linked to the legacy of the church of england in founding primary schools.

You will notice in c of e schools they will refer to it as "collective worship" and increasingly these days the local church will be involved in presenting, because in all honesty they get very little other opportunity to have an audience of impressionable children - very few are taken to church services. You will see references to "open the book" teams who do bible stories etc.

I actually like the bringing together of a whole school or secondary year group, singing is good for children and they do need to practise sitting quietly, paying attention and listening. I am less keen on the increasing pushing of religion. In most places parents have not "chosen" a c of e school, its just the local one or the one the council allocates them a place at.

The high school life depicted in television bore no resemblance to any experience I had in high school. We started the day in homeroom (like my daughter does here in Scotland) and the home room teacher would tell us things like upcoming sports events or prom or whatever but there were no school wide announcements. Once or twice a year there’d be a pep rally for football homecoming but that was optional.

So basically your homeroom teacher gave out messages. That's pretty much what happened in the assemblies we had at my secondary - we were just sat in the hall for it (only one year group at a time as it was a large school).
That's all the secondary assemblies were - giving out some information.

I was born in 1971. In my junior /primary school
i vividly remember that one day a week in one specific assembly-a roll call of names would be read out )those who’d misbehaved) and children would have to go to the front. Pull their trousers down to reveal their underwear, and get the slipper by the head teacher on their bottom(be struck with it 3 or 4 times). It was a catholic school too. So yes, there was definitely humiliation sometimes. Makes me feel completely ancient / it would never happen now.
most assemblies though seem to involve singing, notices, celebrations. I wouldn’t say there’s cheering and an upbeat feel though. Children are expected to be quiet unless they’re called upon. And in primary they tend to sit on the floor cross legged.

Coming from a country without assemblies, what I remember from Harry Potter are meals in the big hall where there were also some announcements, but I never thought of them as assemblies.

if that is the goal it backfires quite badly I think. My children went to a church of England school because it was a local school and although they became very devout Christians for a few months in year R by the time they reached year two or three they were very much quite vocal atheists.

At a balance level though a lot of religious teaching is really just about a set of quite sensible rules to live by and in that sense I always found school assemblies quite good in terms of thinking about how we treat our fellow humans

We do need to ensure that we think about those broader topics like relating to each other and I've always thought that's what's good about the school assemblies because they create a time when someone can bring the focus on to that

I also think there's something really quite magical about singing together with a large group of people and I loved that aspect of a assemblies as a child. Singing is known e to be really good for well-being

Went to school both in Ontario, Canada and New York. Primary amd secondary/high school. All the schools I went to had an had assembly. It was usually once a term and centred around the holidays, ie. Christmas and Easter pageants and concerts. Or if the police came to do a safety walking home talk in primary or safe driving in high school, war on drugs talks, for track and field or a production that went around schools. They were an event with music and an upbeat feeling. And looked forward to. Not a daily or weekly thing at all. I went to big schools including a primary with over 1000 students.

We also sang the Canadian national athem daily in Canada in both English and French and pledged allegiance in America every before school began. This was done over the PA system followed by any info we needed for the day or week usually done bu the principal and/or student Council.

If they're watching Harry potter and they're struggling with the concept of a school assembly, some of the other stuff is going to blow their mind. 😆

Grew up in Europe. Nope not ever.

Grew up on Portugal we didn't have assemblies, the only time we gathered as a group was Christmas and it was a kids 'show'.

This was true even when I was at secondary. We only ever had one or two year groups gathered at a time

My daughter is in high school here in Scotland and they have assemblies every 3rd week for the house she's in and then a whole year assembly once a month. They do all sorts of different things - sometimes there are performances or talks from the student council, sometimes there's information to share, sometimes there's some sort of school event community thing... it's very different to what I had growing up as the students are often the ones talking.

The primary school assemblies are mostly lovely - they do half the school at a time due to space and they all have a theme. Once a year each year group puts together a learning showcase assembly (parents can come) to present what they are working on this year. There's assemblies for different religious festivals and some singing themed ones (that my son hates) and some that involve the different clubs and such at the school.

😂😂😂😂

My kids primary has a fortnightly celebration assembly and a weekly singing assembly. They love singing assembly but are less keen on Celebration assembly (unless they are the one being celebrated!)

We definitely had some assemblies focused on humiliation and collective punishment (1980s, Home Counties).