ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at styles of action and decision in the school, with reference to two aspects: the influence of these styles, for the pupil, in promoting moral and social education; and their influence, for the teacher, in making the school a place where curriculum change can be sustained. To view school as a total influence system is to recognise that it is possible to make it more than the sum of its component parts. School assembly also introduces pupils to the idea of the formal occasion, which is an important part of our culture, whether it be a marriage service or an annual general meeting. The field of curriculum draws on philosophy, sociology, psychology along with social anthropology and the history of education. In developing the design in practice, teachers will have to respond, both singly and in groups, in a variety of sophisticated ways to the internal and external constraints of the individual school and its community.
