This term Lisa, Sarah and Jo have been doing primary school assemblies on the topic of Noah and perseverance.
The assembly starts with asking the children what sporting event is happening this summer. Many children knew that it was the Olympics and had a favourite sport and athlete to share.
We took turns at various schools presenting and told the children that athletes prepare and persevere, they have a professional person advising them what to do and how to do it. We then made the link that Noah had to prepare and persevere, he didn’t do it alone, he had God telling him what to do and how to do it.
With the help of a very clever fabric change bag that changes scenes each time it is unfolded, Lisa or Sarah told the story of Noah. The children especially enjoyed making the sound of rain by patting their knees.
It was very interactive with the children being asked about their favourite athlete, what perseverance means and who helps them to persevere.
In the conclusion the children were encouraged to persevere in life just like Noah. They were told that Christians believe that God is still helping all of us to persevere today.
The teachers appreciated the encouragement the children received to persevere. They thought the topic was very timely as schools are preparing for their sports day. One school was delighted at the topic as they had perseverance certificates to hand out to some children during that assembly.
The response from children and staff has been positive and it is also a good reminder for us all to remember to persevere and that we aren’t doing it alone. God is there to tell us what to do and how to do it and to help us each step of the way.
Lisa, Jo and Tom Saddington have also recently been taking Prayer lessons for students in Year 9 at Blanchelande College.
Prayer stations were set up in a classroom, based on the Lord’s Prayer.
Some of the stations we set up included:
A map of the world, post it notes and pens and news headlines. Students were encouraged to write a prayer for a person or country in the world and stick it to the map.
A bowl of pebbles, bowl of water, headphones and mp3 players. The students listened to a recording of Lisa’s voice encouraging them to hold a pebble and talked them through thoughts on holding onto anger and letting anger go. When they felt ready to, they could release the stone into the water and watch it sink, signifying letting go of their anger.
Another station had pieces of bread to eat while thinking of the line “give us our daily bread”. We provided some large plastic ears and tissue paper for students to write down prayers and put them in the ears to signify God hearing our prayers.
The most popular station was the one with pipe cleaners. This was to think of someone to pray for and make this person out of pipe cleaners as a reminder to think of them and pray for them.
Discussion was opened up about prayer and why we pray. There was opportunity for the students to ask questions too.
Lots of questions were asked leading to deep conversations. Students asked questions such as : “Does God still do miracles?” “Why do bad things still happen?”, “Does prayer work?”.
The students all said they appreciated approaching prayer in a way which was different to what they were used to and many had never approached prayer in a creative way before. The teachers enjoyed having PACE to lead their RE lessons and we really enjoyed delivering these lessons!
