Schoolswork.co.uk have launched a new website letting you know about the two exciting events happening this September. One in the South on Monday 2nd September and one in the North on Friday 6th September.
IMAGINE began back in September 2010 as a way of connecting schools workers and commissioning them into the new academic year.
Visit www.imagineschoolswork.co.uk for more information and to book your place.
This is an assembly I did today for a local infants school, trying to find a good fun way to get them thinking about what Easter is all about:
Preparation and materials
Assembly
Explain that this morning you have with you some different types of Easter food. Get the children to consider quietly what food they think you have brought.
Bring out the hot cross buns. Explain that buns like these have been eaten for hundreds of years, and were particularly popular during holidays like Christmas and Easter. The cross marked on them is a reminder of Jesus’ death on a cross, so eventually they became associated with Good Friday.
Bring out the big Easter egg. Talk about how much we all enjoy eating chocolate at Easter. Explain that in the past, eggs were considered a luxury food, so during Lent people used to give up eating them. (Remind the children, particularly if you have spoken to them about this during Lent, that on Shrove Tuesday eggs would have been used up in the pancakes.) Eggs also remind us of new life, and spring. Some people also say that the inside of a chocolate egg reminds us of Jesus’ empty tomb.
The last Easter food you have brought is … fish fingers! Bring out the empty fish finger packet. A strange choice – do we normally eat fish fingers on Easter Day?
No, but we do hear a lot about fish in the stories about Jesus, and one famous story about fish tells of something that happened after Jesus came back to life.
Read, or paraphrase, John 21.1–14.
1-3 After this, Jesus appeared again to the disciples, this time at the Tiberias Sea (the Sea of Galilee). This is how he did it: Simon Peter, Thomas (nicknamed “Twin”), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the brothers Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. Simon Peter announced, “I’m going fishing.”
3-4 The rest of them replied, “We’re going with you.” They went out and got in the boat. They caught nothing that night. When the sun came up, Jesus was standing on the beach, but they didn’t recognize him.
5 Jesus spoke to them: “Good morning! Did you catch anything for breakfast?”
They answered, “No.”
6 He said, “Throw the net off the right side of the boat and see what happens.”
They did what he said. All of a sudden there were so many fish in it, they weren’t strong enough to pull it in.
7-9 Then the disciple Jesus loved said to Peter, “It’s the Master!”
When Simon Peter realized that it was the Master, he threw on some clothes, for he was stripped for work, and dove into the sea. The other disciples came in by boat for they weren’t far from land, a hundred yards or so, pulling along the net full of fish. When they got out of the boat, they saw a fire laid, with fish and bread cooking on it.
10-11 Jesus said, “Bring some of the fish you’ve just caught.” Simon Peter joined them and pulled the net to shore—153 big fish! And even with all those fish, the net didn’t rip.
12 Jesus said, “Breakfast is ready.” Not one of the disciples dared ask, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Master.
13-14 Jesus then took the bread and gave it to them. He did the same with the fish. This was now the third time Jesus had shown himself alive to the disciples since being raised from the dead.
They were so excited that he was alive again.
End by talking about how at Easter, Jesus died and came back to life. Christians believe that Jesus is with us now as our friend, even though we can’t see him.
Then say you want to use some eggs to demonstrate something about the story of Easter. Put on your apron if you have one.
Pick up the fresh eggs and make a show of ‘accidentally’ breaking them in your hand (be prepared for the egg to go everywhere, which will add to the effect). Hopefully the children will laugh, at which point say, ‘If you think that’s funny, you do better – catch!’ and throw one of the hard-boiled eggs to one of the older children. For added fun you can throw another before the children have time to register that they are hard-boiled. (The usual health and safety warnings apply here: throw low and gently and preferably to a good catcher if you know one.)
Explain that you threw the eggs to demonstrate something about the Easter story. The Easter story is all about the unexpected, about a surprise.
Read or tell the story of how the women, Jesus’ friends, went to the tomb and found it open and empty. They were shocked and surprised to find the body not there.
Say that we have all been expecting Easter (we may have been looking at eggs in the shops). But the first Christians were not expecting Easter at all. They didn’t expect to see Jesus again. Ask the children to imagine that they were friends of Jesus.
Jesus was their friend, they loved him. Then they saw him get into trouble with the Roman authorities, and they saw him die. They were so sad that they cried and cried. They thought he had left them for ever. After a couple of days they decided to go to visit his grave. But the tomb was empty! What a huge, amazing, exciting surprise! More surprising and exciting than 100 Easter eggs, or 100 eggs thrown about in an assembly!
Explain that the Easter story shows us how when things seem at their worst, when everything has gone wrong, we can often find signs of new life and new hope – if we are open to being surprised.
Reflection:
Ask the children to sit quietly, close their eyes and think what it must have been like for Jesus to come back to life on Easter Sunday.
What was it like for his followers, the men and women who had been with him and seen him die a painful death?
What was it like for them after their special friend had died?
And then, what was it like when he came back to life, a special, new kind of life that he shared with them?
Prayer:
Dear God, thank you for hot cross buns and chocolate eggs at Easter. Help us to remember their special meaning – that Jesus died on the cross and then was raised to life for all of us. Amen.
Here’s my favourite assembly that I do each year – feel free to use and adapt:
Preparation: One egg, towel, plastic sheeting/black sack, chocolate Easter egg. Willing teacher and volunteer.
Introduction
Ask: ‘I wonder if anyone can tell me what love is?’ Field the various responses and say, ‘sometimes love is giving up something so that you can help someone else. For example, you may give up watching a TV programme so you can help your mum with the housework or dinner, to show her you love her. Or, you give some of your time and effort to raise money for people less fortunate than yourself because you care for them. (Red nose day)
Now, this kind of giving we call sacrifice which means ‘giving up something valuable for something else that’s really important.’
Illustration
Now to explain a bit more about sacrifice we’ve got a little quiz with a nice prize for the winner and a nasty forfeit for the loser.
Explain:
Winner will get chocolate, loser will get egged! (Get a teacher to volunteer and your partner in crime)
Ask them three questions each, easy ones to your volunteer – they of course get the questions right. Ask the teacher difficult questions – they of course get the answers wrong! (Alternate question asking)
At the end, say you are going to egg the teacher as they clearly got all their questions wrong. Here’s where your volunteer steps in to take the egging in their place – break the egg on their head.
Talk
Sacrifice is a really important part of love. And (Chris) suffered a little there, he gave up his nice hairdo so your teacher didn’t have to take the punishment for getting all those questions wrong.
Now it’s easy to say you love someone, it’s easy to give someone a hug, and hugging is a part of showing someone you love him or her. But are we prepared to suffer to help others?
Next week is Easter, a time when Christians remember the death of Jesus and celebrate His resurrection.
Just as Chris stepped in to take the punishment for the wrong answers from your teacher, we believe that Jesus stepped in and was crucified to take the punishment for all the wrong we do, so that if we chose to follow Him we can be forgiven and one day have eternal life with him.
There is a verse in the Bible that says:
For God loved the world so much that he gave His one and only Son so that whoever believes in Him may not be lost but have eternal life. (John 3:16)
Christians believe that this was the greatest sacrifice anyone has ever made, to lay down his life for the whole world.
You will hopefully never be in the place of having to give up your life for someone, but maybe you might think about some sacrifices you could make, to show someone you care or love them.
And when eating your chocolate eggs next week, perhaps you might remember the Christian message behind Easter, that of Jesus giving up His life for us all.
Questions:
For Chris
For teacher
(Ask questions alternatively)
Below is a talk I gave on the theme of self-harm to our 14-18 year olds for Self-Harm Awareness Week:
When uncontrollable emotions hit you, how do you cope? Does counting to ten prevent anger? Does pouring out your heart to a friend ease inner turmoil? For as many as one in ten young people, self-harm will provide a way of coping when emotions become too overpowering to deal with as they turn that emotional pain onto themselves physically. Although the highest rates of self-harm are among young people, people of all ages and backgrounds are affected by this condition.
Family and friends might feel bewildered by this behaviour. Most will expect the person who harms to be able to explain why they have done it – even though they might not know themselves.
What is self-harm?
Self harm is “acting to deliberately injure yourself physically in an attempt to cope with, express or reduce intense or overwhelming emotions.” The exact form of which varies from “minor, occasional acts to more serious and regular harm that can require hospital treatment.”
Sufferers most commonly harm by cutting or burning their skin, hitting or punching themselves or taking substances that cause pain or discomfort. Others, less commonly, deliberately break bones or pull out hairs – known as trichotillomania, and also linked to obsessive compulsive behaviour – or participate in other damaging behaviours such as alcohol abuse, smoking, unsafe sex and even eating disorders. The choice of method, available instrument or routine of harm is often as individual as the sufferer, as well as whether harm is used as a form of punishment or to deal with whatever they are feeling at a particular moment.
Why do people hurt themselves?
The action of self-harming can be a way of regaining control when individuals are confronted with emotions or circumstances beyond their control. It forms a way of reducing uncomfortable feelings of tension and distress. If the sufferer feels guilty, harming might provide a method of self-punishment to relieve the guilt.
The addictiveness of the process can be a “quick fix for feeling bad”. Some clinicians suggest the release of endorphins – “feel good” chemicals – at the time of any physical injury helps self-harm sufferers to relax. Others theorise harming communicates how the person feels when they are unable to put into words what they are experiencing.
For some this might be acted out in response to their emotions, such as someone whose harm is linked to anger hitting something solid or smashing an item. Harming can also become a method of self-nurture – an enforced time out from anxiety cycles, such as those experienced by obsessive compulsive disorder sufferers who become anxious in checking and rechecking lists or actions, or going over overwhelming thought or emotion patterns.
How does self-harm affect individuals?
Self-harm is a temporary – and dangerous – solution to dealing with uncontrollable emotions. Harming using unclean objects poses obvious health risks but hte avoidance of dealing with difficult emotions by harming leaves the person continuing to struggle with those emotions unless they seek help or their circumstances alter.
Self-harm is usually a hidden behaviour, associated with feelings of guilt, shame and disgust of their actions on top of emotions already experienced. It can therefore provide only a temporary reprieve for sufferers, while making things worse for them in the longer term.
How can we support someone who harms?
In Matthew 22:37 and 39, Jesus says the greatest commandments are to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” and “love your neighbour as yourself”. The Church’s first response to someone who has harmed or admitted to harming needs to be one of love.
For many young people, divulging the secret of their harm is a huge step forward. The next step is for others to support them as they work through the underlying emotions they are dealing with at their own pace. Although it might seem helpful to say “Stop hurting yourself. Do it for me”, this is really unhelpful and can make the sufferer feel even more guilty and ashamed, reinforcing the cycle of negative emotions.
Above all, encourage them to seek professional support.
What is someone is using self-harm to seek attention?
There are a lot of other ways you can get attention other than hurting yourself. So the first question to ask is “Who is to judge if this is attention-seeking behaviour?” and then, as you offer the same support as you would to anyone who self-harms, you can slowly start uncovering the reasons they are doing it.
That person has to learn – just as those who harm find better ways to cope with uncontrollable emotions – to develop better strategies for seeking the attention they feel they need.
Love is the key.
The path to recovery is not easy, and it can be frustrating for sufferers and their supporters, particularly when for every one step forward there might be two back. We can respond to those who harm by providing a compassionate attitude and ensuring those who harm are safe, cared for and treated as the individuals they are, not labelling them by their condition.
Children's and Youth Work
A boy in Spain was dreading a planned parents evening. He had not done well in school, so he anticipated a bad meeting. Fortunately, he came up with a brilliant solution:
Early on Monday afternoon the unnamed 11-year-old son of a Spanish police officer stationed in the north-western town of Xinzo de Limia sent a text message from his mobile phone to tell his father he had been kidnapped.
When his father phoned back, the boy confirmed the worst. He had been snatched off the street as he was putting out the rubbish, he said, and was locked in the boot of a car. He had no idea where his kidnappers were taking him, but knew that the car he was in was a blue Seat. [...]
It was only two hours later that the boy’s father noticed the keys to a spare flat owned by the family were missing.
The child was soon discovered there and reportedly explained that he had been terrified by the prospect of his parents going to school to speak to his teachers.
Read the full story here
Over the last week I’ve done several assemblies in different local schools on the theme of New Year resolutions:
Before the assembly begins, whilst students are still coming in, have a slideshow running with the question ‘did you make a new year’s resolution’ ‘have you already broken it?’ and various statistics and images linked to resolutions.
As the young people come in to the hall, ask the students in the front row to write whether they made any New Year resolutions, and if so have they failed already’ on some paper, while the rest of the year group are coming in.
Assembly
At the start of the assembly say that we asked your views on New Year resolutions, if you made any, and have you broken them already. Here are some of your thoughts, and read their viewpoints out. Here’s a Top 10 illustrated by cats:
Lots of us will have made resolutions, and it is likely that most of us will break them. GMTV asked viewers to email in their new years resolutions. Here are the top 5 that came out of that poll:
CBBC on their website suggested that the top 5 new years resolutions would be:
Research suggests that around only 12-29% of us will be successful in keeping our resolution. So this morning we wanted to share with you 3 people who made massive goals and targets, and how they coped with trying to reach them.
Thomas Edison: ‘father of the modern world’ (1847–1931)
‘No one did more to share the physical character of our present day civilization … he was the most influential figure of the Millennium.’
One of Thomas Edison’s 1,093 inventions was the light bulb filament, but it took him over 3,000 attempts to invent it! That means 2,999 attempts at getting it to work, failed. He worked 18-hour days and only had five hours’ sleep a night. He said to his friends,
‘I don’t even need exercise, I don’t need to play golf because I have all the exercise I need going from one lab to another.’
Michael Jordan ‘The greatest sports star of all time?’
In a similar vein, in my opinion Michael Jordan may be the greatest sports star of all time. He won six NBA world titles – the most valuable player in all of them. He won the NBA slamdunk contest twice, changing it for ever. He scored 32,292 points in his career. He was, unlike many players these days, ‘the complete package’: he had the greatest offence, stifling defence and he was a media phenomenon, doing feature films through to cereal adverts. Yet he said this:
‘I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. Twenty- six times I have been trusted to take the game-winning shot and have missed; I have failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.’
Somehow, in this instant world of Pot Noodles, McDonald’s and quick boiling kettles, where the National Lottery promises us the ultimate get rich quick scheme and we respond to spam emails believing that someone has left us £2 million if we could only send them £100 for an administration fee(!), the concept that failure strengthens has been lost. Often, it is in failure that we learn to succeed.
Paul: The Greatest Christian
Paul says:
‘… I don’t understand why I act the way I do. I don’t do what I know is right. I do the things I hate’ (Rom. 7:15, cev) but he also says, ‘My friends, I don’t feel that I have already arrived. But I forget what is behind, and I struggle for what is ahead. I run toward the goal, so that I can win the prize of being called to heaven. This is the prize that God offers because of what Christ Jesus has done … But we must keep going in the direction that we are now headed’ (Phil. 3:13-14, 16, CEV).
So next time you switch on a bulb in your house remember Thomas Edison and all his failures, the difficulties and the struggles that he had to overcome to become the man that he was to be. And next time you see a basketball, imagine Michael Jordan being gutted 26 times after missing his game-winning shot, when he was the best player in the world. That’s what hope is all about. Hope and failure are sometimes very close to each other, and we have to decide which one to go for… Christians believe God didn’t tell us that we would succeed easily and avoid suffering and failure; he just said that he would be there with us.
And that makes all the difference.
This afternoon I did a Christmas themed assembly at our local junior school on the theme of crackers and chocolates:
What are you most looking forward to this Christmas?
Most of us look forward to something at Christmas. The anticipation (the looking forward) is sometimes as much fun as Christmas itself!
Pick some children to come up to the front. How do you feel to have a cracker in your hand? (Try to draw out feelings of excitement and anticipation.) How much do you want to pull the cracker and see what’s inside? What do you expect to find inside? Now pull your cracker. (Let the children enjoy the contents!) What do you think of what’s inside?
Crackers are really exciting because the contents are a surprise. Sometimes we’re pleased with the gift inside, sometimes disappointed.
Hundreds of years before Jesus was born, the Jews were excited about the coming of a Saviour.
At that time, their enemies had attacked their land and taken them all away as prisoners. They were forced to settle down in a foreign country. They were homesick. They longed to go back to their own land, their own villages, towns and homes.
A man called Isaiah told them about a coming Saviour who would set them free. Isaiah said:
‘For a child has been born for us, a son given to us;
authority rests upon his shoulders;
and he is named
Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
His authority shall grow continually,
and there shall be endless peace
for the throne of David and his kingdom.’
Wow! A child. Mighty God! Prince of Peace! Endless peace! No more suffering! Freedom from exploitation! The people must have been so excited. The anticipation must have been too much to bear! A million times more exciting than holding a cracker in your hand!
The birth of the baby Jesus was the fulfilment of the prophecy Isaiah had made many years before.
Here’s a recap of the Christmas story:
A long time ago, God made the Galaxy, beautiful, rich, wonderful. And filled it with people, people he made, people he loved, people like you and me, people who were all special to him. And he gave these people everything, all kinds of FRUIT SKITTLES. Everything except one tree, one Fruit Pastille others which they were told not to eat.
But the people wanted to do things their own way, so they did a BREAKAWAY from God. Trouble is, after the breakaway everything started to go wrong. Really really ROCKY. Suffering, pain, loneliness, bullying, violence, death. Because we’d chosen our way instead of God’s way.
Everything just got really HARIBO (horrible). So to give them a BOOST God promised that things would change. One day a special person would come and put things right, I’m telling you the truth, I’m not LION.)
Many years later, a girl called Mary heard a WISPA, from an angel who said that she would be the Mother of God’s son. But how could this be? She was not yet married to Joseph. To have a baby now would be a TOPIC of conversation in the village. But before she could say CHOCOLATE COATED PEANUTS she was pregnant.
Poor Joseph. Well his brain was in a TWIRL and mush like MARSHMALLOWS and he had to take TIME OUT and have a lie down. As he slept, he had a dream, and an angel explained everything, and soon this became as clear as FOX’S GLACIER MINTS. And when he woke up he decided to have a WORTHER’S ORIGINAL to remind him og the good old days.
But before the baby arrived, political events overtook them – Joseph had to return to Bethlehem for the census – it was 80 miles away – a MARATHON (Snickers) journey, over stony hills which were CRUNCHIE under foot, and when you are pregnant it’s no bed of ROSES but Joseph thought the BREAK would do her good.
When they arrived, Joseph tried to find lodgings, but CLUB after CLUB let them down – No room they all said. Eventually they were offered a little out house – it was there that the little baby was born. He was named Jesus, which means Saviour. He was laid in a manger, lined with hay and STRAW (Sherbet straw!)
And though Joseph was a bit confused, he was a good egg, you couldn’t hope to meet a KINDER man (Kinder Egg), so he decided to look after Mary, and God’s baby.
So the story goes that Mary and Joseph travelled to Bethlehem. Mary was heavily pregnant, and Joseph wondered if she’d FLAKE out on the journey.
They finally found a room full of animals – might not have been a stable, sometimes people lived in a house with a split floor, animals on one level, people on the next, so maybe the innkeeper let them into his home. We don’t know what sort of animals were there, but by morning there was Jesus NESTLEing in his mothers arms.
All sorts of strange visitors started to turn up.
That night, some shepherds, heard holy music makers, MINSTRELS in the sky. “Glory to God in the Highest”. The shepherds decided to take a break (KIT-KAT) from looking after the sheep. Let’s GO and see what’s happening in Bethlehem. So straight as an AERO they headed for Bethlehem to find Jesus. And they were there in a JAFFA.
When they were there they found the TRIO, Joseph, Mary and Jesus, who was lying in a manger. It was not at all a NICE place; smelly and dirty – not really a fit place for a maternity ward. They were however UNITED in their wonder, they REVELled at the thought that this child was special. Could this be just as the prophets had foretold – was this the LION of Judah? It was getting late, AFTER EIGHT, in fact – so the shepherds returned to the hills – huffing and PUFFIN and singing praise to God as they went.
Meanwhile in a far country, some SMARTIES, wise men were busily scanning the GALAXY, when they saw a STARBURST near the MILKY WAY. Was it MARS? No it was a special STAR – signalling the birth of a King. They travelled long and hard over TOBLERONE mountains and reached Herod’s Palace – they were not embarrassed to HOBNOB with royalty.
Herod was very interested – “A King has been born?” – He didn’t believe them and called theM ALL TEASERS, but just to make sure – he tried to FUDGE the issue by saying that he wanted to go and worship the baby – and told the wise men to report to him on their way back. Herod was extremely dangerous to know, not the type of person who would give you his last ROLO or share his CHOCOLATE ORANGE. The wise men travelled until the found Jesus and they brought out their KINGTSIZE gifts, no TWIX, just BOUNTY: GOLD, frankincense, and Myrrh. Then God warned them in a dream that Herod was up to his TWIX again, seeking the child’s life. So they took the TIME OUT to return by another route. Herod sat in his sumptuous palace, seething and plotting and grabbing handfuls of JELLY BABIES and biting off their heads, a terrible sign of what was to come.
Now that’s the familiar story – the CLASSIC tale, told at Christmas. It has little to do with reindeer and FLAKES of snow and robins and a baby in a clean crib decorated with tinsel. The original story was not that NICE. Jesus was born a refugee, he was a threat, a danger – don’t miss the meaning.
Jesus was born so that ALLSORTS of people, RANDOMS might know God’s love for them. Many people are looking for meaning and purpose – some kind of REFRESHER in life – a BOOST in difficult times. The Christmas Story really is cause for CELEBRATION, Jesus is no MINATURE HERO!
But what a surprise! A mighty king born in a stable? With poor parents? There were lots of different reactions to Jesus’ birth.
Time for reflection
Today there are still lots of different reactions to Christmas.
Some people love it; others hate it.
Some people look forward to it; others worry about it.
Some people have too much to do; others sit at home alone.
Some people celebrate the birth of Jesus; others do not.
Prayer
Father God,
thank you for Christmas,
for all that we are looking forward to this year.
Help us to remember those who are not looking forward to Christmas.
Help us to be there for them.
Amen.