Every Tuesday, the entire Upper School shuffles into Roberts Theater (as of lately, Hewett) to attend an assembly. Granted, assemblies are far from the most exciting events at school—usually, they’re preceded with mild protest, slumped shoulders, and some amount of sighing. After they’re over, you can hear whispers upon leaving the auditorium: “This couldn’t have been an email?” Yet, SGA has made large strides to make assemblies more engaging, for which we commend their efforts.
This year, assemblies were structured to center students. This change was especially refreshing as it allowed students to engage effectively with the Wyvern community. Students, clubs, or even classes could hypothetically sign up to show off what they’ve been working on—art classes could present their recent pieces, or musical groups like Oxfordians and Jazz Band could perform a piece or two. This way, assemblies highlight student achievement and encourage community bonding. This format, however, hasn’t truly worked in practice. Assemblies are still much the same: club announcements, SGA updates, and reminders about campus events.
Currently, students are mostly limited to creating slides for things they would like to announce. The problem with the slides is that they are left for individual students or advisee groups to check on Monday. Due to holiday long weekends or already planned group activities, some groups may fail to check the slides, leaving important or interesting information to be unseen.
These problems are not without a possible fix. One solution could include creating a social media account to extend the impact of announcements beyond advisee groups, students checking via Google Slides, or assemblies themselves. Taking screenshots of the slides and posting them to KO’s Instagram stories could enable the KO community to become more informed. There could even be the creation of an Instagram account that would be dedicated to announcements. Then, students could follow the account to continue to be engaged and updated.
This isn’t to say that social media should replace the announcement slides. Rather, they could serve as a supplement. Take WyvernNation as an example. Each time KO has a snow day or a delay, WyvernNation posts a story notifying students, despite the fact that their guardians, teachers, and students themselves have already received emails detailing these changes. KO has acknowledged that social media is a useful tool to extend its outreach, and this same behavior can be used for SGA and announcements slides.
Another problem surrounding assemblies is that many announcements run over time. People ramble, or speak slowly, dragging the announcement on for longer than necessary. This means there can only be a limited number of speakers per assembly. Unfortunately, more important announcements like general updates to the community would be prioritized over celebrating students’ achievements or talents. One potential solution for this could be a timer, set to three or four minutes, allowing announcers to prepare their speech for a certain time limit and allowing the Speaker to have more speakers per assembly. Furthermore, by having smaller speeches, rather than what can seem like never-ending presentations, students would likely have a higher attention span.
It may seem counterproductive to limit the time each speaker has, especially if their speech requires more time or is more relevant for the school to hear. But, there is more than a “one size fits all” model. If there is a speech that requires more time due to the nature of its content, then the schedule could shift accordingly.
Additionally, having more time at assemblies (by more effectively organizing speakers), there could be more time to have House tournaments. Although some on campus might feel otherwise, House tournaments have been a fun way to spice up assemblies. Creating more time during assemblies will allow for students to participate in an activity each week for their House. This would fulfill the purpose of the House system, namely to create a sense of community and pride.
Assemblies will never be “perfect.” Every student has a different vision of what assembly could be like in the future. However, these small changes could help assemblies and announcements be more productive and more entertaining for students. Students need reminders and other ways to absorb information beyond on GoogleSlides. Overall, by shifting the way in which assemblies and general updates are provided to the KO body, we can become a more informed and celebratory community.
