School Assemblies....a teacher needs help!

Hi,

I am a teacher at an SEN school and I dread assemblies.

my pupils with ASD do not like assemblies (to be fair neither do i).

i do not believe they are ASD friendly....

i am looking for suggestions on how to make assemblies ASD friendly...types of activity etc...

pat the moment assemblies are long, verbal and comprise of a lot of certificate giving out or announcements.

what can we do to make assemblies better? What would the ASD pupils like?

ideas please. 

Parents
  • You say you don't like assemblies either? Perhaps some of the reasons you feel this way are shared by your pupils, ASD and not? Identifying the reasons you feel this way and sharing those with your pupils would be a good place to start and perhaps ask them to add other suggestions for improvements they may have? 

    From what you've written, perhaps shortening the time of assemblies by having two small ones (one for lower primary classes and another for the higher classes?) would help?  

  • Hi Thankyou for replying. Unfortunately the ASD pupil I work with can not communicate what she hates.....but I can guess....they are long and verbal.  I am hoping for ideas that ASD pupils would like to see in assemblies. I need suggestions on how to improve the content.

Reply
  • Hi Thankyou for replying. Unfortunately the ASD pupil I work with can not communicate what she hates.....but I can guess....they are long and verbal.  I am hoping for ideas that ASD pupils would like to see in assemblies. I need suggestions on how to improve the content.

Children
  • If you want to make adjustments for one pupil in particular it might be interesting to get to know his/her sensory sensibilities? Is he/she hypo or hyper visual, hypo or hyper auditory, hypo or hyper tactile... etc etc.?

    For me I think small groups would be excellent (those large halls are an acoustic nightmare, also you can't "escape" and when people expect you to do stuff it is extremely confusing, because you don't know the planning and what's happening. 

    I was never non-verbal, but for me these kind of occasions (large events, school parties, religious stuff) were the summum of stress, because you couldn't escape, got stuck in it, a lot of sensory stimulation, bad acoustics....and smells :-) and no clue what you are supposed to be doing.

    Knowing the exact planning from minute to minute (with pictures, with a time timer, so you know how long it will take) - might make it more tolerable. Is there a structure to the assembly (it might be obvious to you, but it won't be to your pupil). 

    What is the goal and reason behind assemblies. If you look at the point of them - how can you make that point accessible to your pupil.

    Would it be possible - for a part of the assembly, or as a break -  to use a side room and have like a drawing session or something with no talking, no noise, about a certain theme? And possibly invite selected guests into the sideshow?