An alternative strategy for avoiding assembly and the hated HM was to be there for registration. Then wander upstairs, down the back corridor where Chemistry & Physics labs were located & then on to the top of the staircase above the main entrance to the school.
Once you heard the distinctive tread below this point of the Lower School Head, “Frog” Newcombe making his way to the Junior(1st & 2nd years) Hall for assembly, you knew Moody was making HIS co-ordinated way down the stone cloister to the Main Hall for main assembly. Never failed.
And then, you were free to retire to the toilets with your Number 6, or Embassy on flusher days, and to read your Daily Mirror in peace.