Today we had our first whole school assembly of the year. All 500 children, their teachers and our support staff came down to the gym after lunch for get re-introduced to staff, meet new staff, and to set expectations for the year.

School assemblies are all slightly different in each school. Some schools have them once a week, while others do them once a month. They may celebrate Students of the Month, or they may review a virtue that the school is focusing on.

At Cleveland our assemblies start with the singing of Oh Canada (en français et aussi en anglais), and then we move on to the mai purpose of the assembly. Today, the main purpose was welcoming everyone, meeting our Kindergarten and other new students, and story time with the Principal, where I read The Sneetches and Other Stories by Dr. Suess.

Have you read it? It is one of my favourites.

The Sneetches are great story characters – those with stars upon their belly, and those with no stars. In their mistaken belief that one type of Sneetch is better than another, they end up giving all of their money to Sylvester McMonkey McBean trying to become the better Sneetch. In the end, the Sneetches learn a valuable lesson about accepting everyone, even if they do not have “stars upon thars.”

What did I hope the children would learn from the Sneetches? Accept everyone, and include others in play.

Looking forward to seeing this in action on our playground and in our classrooms.

Take care.