Quickly, answer this: do you enjoy staff meetings early in the morning?
We’ll take the wild guess that there are innumerable other ways in which you prefer your day to start.
However, our students do. And yes, you read this correctly.
Every morning we start with an “Assembly” for a quarter of an hour. What we assemble are our thoughts, expectations, feeling and general mood. This way our pupils learn to share and to accept the others.
Are you feeling happy? Why though? After answering these questions, the rest of the pupils subconsciously absorb at least a part of the mood and you can almost see from the corner of your eyes the classroom brightening a tad more.
What about if you are angry, scared or uncomfortable? Share with the rest. Tell us the reasons. We’ll do our best to comfort you. We’ll spread some contagious happiness.
And why are we doing this to your poor children? Because this way we build a team, which can tackle any obstacles during the day. Because this way the pupils build stronger bonds with each other. Because they learn to be helpful. Because they learn to be better people. We also teach the students to value the most coveted human virtues like consistency, commitment, cooperation, tact, respect, etc. Each week of the entire school year is devoted to one of them, so your children can indeed become better human beings.
Furthermore, as everything else, the “Assembly” has some pure learning goals. When we discuss with the kids their previous day and their expectations about today they learn how to cope with the calendar.
From there the main lessons can sprout in a wild variety of directions. When discussing the dates, the transition to a math class is only natural. Or did you know that the calendar we use isn’t actually used worldwide? You knew? Good! But your children didn’t. So here is the geography lesson. You see where this is going.
Lastly, the “Assembly” eradicates the stress of waking up early, leaving your home and getting ready for a battle with the world. If you have the opportunity of having a smooth transition between your morning and your day, which also makes you more focused and productive, why not just grab it?
So this is what our pupils do. They don’t even have to grab anything. The transition is unconsciously handed to them by our caring teachers in the best possible way. That’s why your children love coming to school.
Are you still not sure?
Ask them when they come home!