My best assembly ever! I’ve presented hundreds of school assemblies over the last 30 years and with today being World Book Day I remembered this one.

It was just after a half term holiday. I took a huge rucksack into assembly – 600 eager faces all looking my way and wondering what I’d be on about today! I wanted to wander in amongst the students so I didn’t stand on the stage as I often did. I asked the students if they’d had a good holiday and they chimed a loud ‘Yes’. Mr C my fellow deputy asked me if I’d had a good holiday. I then launched into my assembly about my fabulous holiday and how busy I had been!

 Out of my rucksack I pulled my safari hat, binoculars and camera. I told them of my safari adventures in Africa and how hot it had been! Next I pulled out a bright colourful sari, a sunhat, my sunglasses and suncream. I told them about the wonderful sights and sounds of India. Finally I pulled my ski jacket, warm gloves and ski goggles. Putting them all on I regaled the whole hall with my adventure in the arctic and how cold it was there and the wonderful sights I’d seen. The children were rapt and so were many of the staff. When I started to tell them about the wild chase across the ice on skidoos there were more puzzled faces and the touch of disbelief started to creep in.

At this point another colleague Mr H asked me loudly if I was sure that I had done all those things because he thought he’d seen me in B&Q on the Monday. I told him that must have been my twin sister and carried on looking in my rucksack. Then Mrs W shouted out that she knew I had been in the local café with her on the Thursday so how had I managed to fit all this adventure in. By now the children were very confused and not quite sure who to believe!

I rooted around some more in my rucksack and finally came clean. I pulled out the three books I had read over the holiday period – an African adventure, an escape to India and finally a terrific adventure called Ice Station by Matthew Reilly! I talked about how I had escaped in the pleasure of the books and had been transported to these wonderful places. I bigged up books big time!

At the end of the assembly there was a queue of students waiting to borrow the books and for the rest of the week some students were still not quite sure whether I had been to all those places or not. I told them that in my head I had and how much joy I had from it all!

Happy World Book Day and happy reading to you all.
Soo Matthews
NLP4Kids Practitioner