The Assembly

The whole scene is comic.

Mr Gryce shouts at the boys and is presented comically as an angry figure who loses his temper at the slightest thing.

He is one of many adults in the novel who have no care for the young.

No one is interested in the prayers or the hymn.

Billy day dreams about looking after his kestrel, showing what is actually relevant to him.

Billy will be punished for daydreaming in assembly, showing the violence in the school system at the time.