Our aim of both of the above focuses is for us to empower every pupil in our school to become an educated citizen and our assemblies play an integral role within this through promoting British Values and ensuring that our C.A.R.E. school values and spiritual, moral, social and cultural education remain at integral to everything we do in school. 

Votes for Schools

Votes for Schools is an online voting platform designed to prompt discussion on challenging current issues. Each Monday a member of the Senior Leadership Team introduce the discussion question for the week. Assemblies are split into Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 with the resources and focus of the questions adapted accordingly to ensure that they are age appropriate. Some recent questions include:

• Is the Internet bad for relationships?
• Should all children learn about coping with loss & bereavement at school?
• Do people buy too much food at Christmas?
• Should the UK do more for Afghanistan?
• Should you have to learn about politics in school?

After being introduced to the discussion question and some background information on Monday, this is followed up in class and phase assemblies leading up to pupils ‘voting’ on this at the end of the week. Children then see and discuss the results of our school as well as other schools at the start of the following week as they are collated at a national level. 

Current Affairs

As well as votes for schools, one assembly per week is focused on current affairs and ‘What’s in the News?’ The purpose of this is to broaden pupils outlook and awareness of what is going on in the world outside of Carlisle and their day to day lives. 

Singing

Singing brings children together and builds a sense of community which is essential for their social, mental and psychological development. Once per week our children join together in their key stages to sing, enjoy and perform together. 

Celebration Assemblies

Celebrating successes is an integral part of our school day- we want pupils to be proud of their individual achievements as well as being proud of what their peers achieve.

• Golden Book assembly Golden Book celebrates achievements of individuals from each class in school. 
• Class Assembly has a focus on what one class in particular has been learning. Every class has a turn and these involve all of the pupils in the class in a way that they feel comfortable with. it is a great opportunity to share the fantastic work that goes on in each area of our curriculum within each class.
• Attendance Assembly celebrates the great attendance achievements of individual pupils and families. This could be gaining 100% attendance, most improved attendance or improved punctuality- all are equally valued.
• Themed Assemblies celebrate particular events within school, for example World Book Day may celebrate the best costume, Maths Day- best scores on Times Tables Rockstars etc.

Our celebration assemblies are usually shared with our families and community via facebook for the celebrations to be shared together and making them accessible to view. 

Visitor Assemblies

At Pennine Way, we love welcoming in visitors to our school community and listening and learning from them as well as asking lots of questions. Some examples of our visitor assemblies include:

• Guide dogs to raise pupil awareness
• Road Safety to learn about staying safe in our community
• Community police officers to learn about consequences to actions and develop relationships with our CPSOs. 
• Imam to share with us some Muslim prayers.

In addition to all of those above, we also have regular safeguarding, mental health, well being and online safety assemblies, adapted as appropriate to different year group needs.