🗣️ Assemblies, Chaos or Calm?
Practical strategies to support pupils with SEMH needs during school assemblies and large events, reducing anxiety and promoting inclusion.
👋 Welcome to SEMH Education!
Every week, I share insights, strategies, and tips from my experience working with children and professionals on social, emotional, and mental health (SEMH) in education. This week, we’re exploring assemblies and how tricky they can be for some pupils.
I’m sure some children will immediately spring to mind when you think about assemblies! This post will explore different strategies for supporting those children. I hope you find one that works for you!
For many pupils, assemblies and whole-school events are a chance to celebrate achievements, come together as a community, and positively break from routine. However, for children with SEMH needs, these larger, less predictable environments can feel overwhelming. Noise, crowds, sensory input, uncertainty about what’s coming next. These are not small challenges for a nervous system that is already working hard to stay regulated.
In today's post, we’ll explore simple, respectful ways schools can support SEMH pupils during assemblies and other large events, ensuring inclusion doesn’t come at the cost of emotional safety.
🎯 The Challenge: Assemblies Can Be Dysregulating
For many children, particularly those with SEMH, sensory processing differences, ADHD, autism, or trauma, assemblies can be triggering for several reasons:
Sensory Overload: Bright lights, loud microphones, clapping, and tightly packed rows.
Lack of Predictability: Changes to routine can spike anxiety when children don’t know what’s going to happen.
Perceived Loss of Control: Being part of a large group with little autonomy can feel scary.
Social Pressure: Expectations to sit still, stay quiet, and “behave” for long periods can be unrealistic and feel punitive.
The result is often emotional dysregulation, withdrawal, shutdowns, or even outbursts that are often misread as defiance. Think about it, how many times have you or another staff member told a child to “Sit still!” or “Just behave!” in assemblies? I know I was guilty of this in my first teaching posts. I was just blindly following what other, more experienced, members of staff were doing to calm behaviour. These simple techniques do work for some, but they’re often short-lived in my experience.
📝 What Support Can You Offer?
Creating safe access to whole-school events means thinking proactively. Below are strategies I’ve seen work well across a range of settings:
🎓 Pre-Teach and Prepare
Walk pupils through what to expect beforehand. For example; where it will be, what it looks/sounds like, how long it will last.
Use visual schedules, first/then boards, or short social stories to support predictability.
Consider a briefing space just before the event with a trusted adult to walk through the plan again.
🧑🏫Own Experience: If you have a different assembly coming up, such as a whole-school one or one delivered by an outside agency. I found that pre-teaching the whole class can be really beneficial. When it’s an outside agency, if you have their contact details, just send them an email asking for an overview, explain that you have some children who would be more engaged if they had some preteach material.
I usually asked for the following; How long it will be, any audience interaction, any surpises, what the children need to take-away from the assembly.
Spending 10-15minutes talking with the class about the assembly will often result in the children being more engaged and decrease the chance of any disruptions.
🔙 Build in Opt-Out Options
In my opinion, attending assemblies, especially for those children with SEN, should be a choice, not a demand. Some pupils might want to:
Step out early or arrive late.
Watch from the back near an exit or from a side room (e.g., watching a livestream in a quieter space).
Skip the event entirely and work with a known adult elsewhere in school.
Inclusion is not about everyone doing the same thing, it’s about everyone getting what they need.
🧑🏫Own Experience: I’ve had success with this is in a number of different ways. It really depends on the child. Some children like to arrive early and be the first one in the assembly space, others like to arrive last. Some like to sit right at the front, at the sides or at the back.
I have also used IT to ‘stream’ the assembly into the classroom where some children remained. You can do this easily by asking a member of staff to take their work phone, class iPad or other device into the assembly and simply asking them to video call you. For example, TA calls Teacher on Teams and the Teacher displays the video on the interactive whiteboard in the classroom. No fancy official ‘streaming’ equipment needed!
🤝 Trusted Adult or Buddy System
Pair the child with a known, regulated adult or a calm peer who understands the child’s needs.
The adult can help co-regulate and spot early signs of dysregulation.
Having a safe person present can reduce anticipatory anxiety and help the pupil feel seen.
Peer Buddys can also explain what’s happening before and after the assembly.
🧑🏫Own Experience: I’ve talked about buddy systems before and how great they can be. Sometimes, all that’s needed is to ensure this approach is used when there is an assembly! You can also use this system in the pre-teach, and post-event section. For example, allowing their buddy to support with explaining the assembly or joining them afterwards to decompress.
🧰 Tools for Sensory Regulation
Make sensory supports readily available, ideally as part of your school-wide inclusive toolkit:
Ear defenders to reduce auditory input.
Fidget toys to provide movement and tactile input.
Earphones with calming music or white noise (if safe and agreed in advance).
Weighted lap pads or soft objects for grounding (check sensory preferences first).
🧑🏫Own Experience: In my opininion, if you’re allowing a child to use these types of tools in the classroom, then they should be allowed in an assembly (maybe not the earphones, but these could be swapped for ear defenders and a fidget toy).
As long as the sensory tool isn’t creating a distraction for the other children around them, they should be allowed to use these to keep themselves regulated. If a child requires a sesnory tool but it may cause distraction then think about where they are sitting in the assembly space.
😮💨 Post-Event Decompression
After a big event, some pupils will need time and space to down-regulate:
Offer a quiet zone for recovery with low lighting and soft seating.
Check in with a quick emotion check or scaling question: “How was that for you out of 10?”
Allow movement breaks or time outdoors if needed, after the assembly.
🧑🏫Own Experience: If you used all the previous techniques mentioned and there were no disruptions in the actual assembly, I’m sure you can think of occasions when you lost the class ATFER an assembly. A short check-in before returning to academic work can save you a significant amount of time.
Some assemblies, often from external agencies, are extremely up-regulating. They may contain music, singing or the dreaded sugary sweets as prizes! Resulting in complete dysregulation when you return to class and attempt to carry on with work.
If this feels familiar, think about inputting some Down-Regulation techniques before starting any academic work. Opting for a 10-15minute activity which regulates the children might actually save you the rest of the lesson!
💡 A Whole-School Approach
While it’s tempting to see these supports as "extra," they are in fact protective factors, not just for the identified pupil, but for the whole school community. Assemblies shouldn’t be a battleground for control; they should reflect our values of compassion, safety, and flexible inclusion.
You don’t need to overhaul your systems overnight. Start by identifying one or two pupils who might benefit, and pilot a plan with them. Small tweaks can make a huge difference.
🤔Final Thoughts
Assemblies are amazing, they bring the whole school, year group or peer groups together. They are often a showcase of achievement and praise, which is something all children deserve. However, they can be tricky to navigate and engage in for some young people.
I have found success when using ALL of the previously mentioned techniques for assemblies I knew might be tricky.
Pre-Teach before the assembly.
Allow children to sit where you know they will be most regulated
Sit them with a buddy
Allow them to use their sensory tool
Check-in with them afterwards and complete an appropriate Up/Down Regulation activity.
Using all of these methods takes hardly any extra planning and resourcing but the upside is huge! Children are more engaged and have tackled a social situation which they previously struggled with.
Let me know how your school currently manage this?
Do you have pupils who avoid assemblies, or have stopped coming to school on days they’re planned?
I’d love to hear from you.
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