Normalising high expectations deliberately

Thahmina Begum on Daniel Vanstone's Year 7 assembly

Holding the attention and inspiring a group of 30 year 7s is a tough job. But doing that with a group of 270 year 7s is a whole new feat. Assemblies are vital for any head of year to harness a sense of belonging, establishing common values, and making expected behaviours the norm.

To do this well, at any level, one must have good relationships with the students and excellent control.

Since September, Daniel has created very deliberate controls that students understand to be routine and the norm. All 270 of them. But within the controls he has created, Daniel injects humour, confidence and high expectations. And he does this, all in the space of 1 minute 30 seconds!

The first student he calls on is Luna. Luna got into a bit of trouble last week but since has worked hard to prove herself - he lets the year group know this very briefly but says it as if he is speaking only to Luna. He builds her confidence through recognition of her effort, ‘I couldn’t be prouder of you Luna’, before asking her to speak in front of everyone.

Next, he ‘bounces’ Luna’s response about feeling bad, or fear, to the boy with the blue hair, Justice, and jokes lightheartedly using the question he poses to him (‘I’m scared of that hair!’). It is a serious topic (bullying) but the humour creates a common feeling among the year group and encourages them to empathise with the scenarios Daniel is painting with the students.

Finally, Daniel calls on Georgio and commends the response through his gestures, silently counting 3 on his fingers, as Georgio provides 3 examples to the response. Daniel ends this with directing applause from the whole year group (I cut this bit off by accident!) to show how impressed he is with the answer.

All of it is deliberate. Daniel is warm and firm, normalises correct behaviours and does all of this simultaneously. In doing so, he achieves what Georgio explains: ‘[school is] a place where you can be happy, have a good education and feel safe with all of your teachers and friends to surround you and get you through school life.’