What's included in the May Day Whole School Assembly PowerPoint resource and why is it useful?

May Day Whole School Assembly PowerPoint is a slideshow that explores the ancient festival on 1st May that marks the change from winter to spring. The content includes 9 slides, covering what May Day is, the history of May Day, ancient traditions such as the maypole, Jack of the Green and the May Queen, how May Day is celebrated today, Morris dancing and a reflection.

Ancient May Day Traditions

Dancing around a tree trunk decorated with flowers, Jack of the Green in a suit made of leaves and the May Queen leading the parades, with questions such as "Can you think of any May Day traditions?"

May Day Today

The May Bank Holiday, maypole dancing and parades with Morris dancers, who wear bells on their shoes to wake the earth from its winter sleep, ending with "What part of the May Day celebrations do you think would be the most fun to take part in?"

How do our whole school assemblies work?

Our whole school assemblies are PowerPoint slideshows that follow a similar structure: an introduction, questions to get children thinking, the key points of the topic and reflection time. They're paced to suit a primary school assembly and work best on a whiteboard, projected out to the hall. You can use them:

• as a whole school assembly, from EYFS up to KS2
• as a class assembly
• as a teaching PowerPoint when you want to cover an event or topic in your own classroom

The majority of our assemblies include teacher notes and guidance to support delivery, and because they're pacey, you can adapt them to however long your assembly lasts.

Adapting the Assembly for Your School

Every assembly is editable, so you can add, remove or change slides to suit the needs of your school. We cover religious events, seasonal topics, values such as kindness, friendship and tolerance, science, history, PSHE, music, significant people and sporting events, so you can choose the assemblies that fit your school year.

Supporting Learning at Home

Families can carry the conversation on at home by asking children about their assembly: what they heard, how it made them feel and what they think about it.

You can explore more of our whole school assembly resources here.