A Spotlight On: The Assemblies From Songs For EVERY Spring Assembly

Mid-morning break at last. Time to get your bearings…

Healthy snack? – Check

Packed lunch in the fridge? – Check

10,000 steps? – Nearly done already!

Tomorrow’s assembly plan?… Oh no!

With 15 ready-to-go assembly plans in our new Songs For EVERY Spring Assembly package, we have got you covered!

The assemblies are designed to be really flexible, allowing you to choose the sections that are most relevant to your school. Each assembly provides you with age-appropriate, content presented in an interesting way, encouraging children to develop their thinking, empathy, positivity and creativity, helping you deliver collective worship with ease:

• Engage – to grab the attention of your audience
• Wonder – to get children thinking
• Talk About – to get them talking and sharing thoughts
• Bible Bit – to provide a spiritual element
• Respond – to allow a time for reflection
• Prayer – to encourage children to engage in a positive response
• Go Deeper – to suggest ways in which the topic might be further explored outside of an assembly setting

At Out of the Ark, we believe that assemblies should be fun and enjoyable, whilst also giving children the opportunity to consider spiritual and moral issues, develop community spirit and reinforce positive attitudes. Keeping that in mind, in these assembly plans we have tried to use a wide range of approaches to avoid the assemblies becoming too predictable.

Using examples drawn from spring themes, the assemblies help children explore aspects of life which link with most schools’ values:

• Responding to challenges and sharing each other’s joys
• Sharing and celebrating each other’s experiences and talents
• Fostering respect for both self and others
• Developing an attitude of thankfulness
• Reflecting on the need for resilience, mindfulness and a healthy attitude to physical and mental wellbeing
• Practising being still and reflective

On each assembly plan you can see at a glance the degree of preparation needed:

Any items you’ll need are listed on the plan, as are suggestions for song choices, which underpin the theme of each assembly.

• Minimal – requires some simple preparation such as sourcing a few images for slides
• Moderate – mainly sourcing images or video clips from the internet (many of which are provided as links)
• Advanced – gathering some simple physical objects or pre-preparing a helper or helpers

Pick an assembly requiring minimal or moderate preparation and if necessary, bypass the ‘Engage’ column and move straight to the ‘Wonder’ column. You may still need to access a YouTube clip, but where something very specific is needed, the links are given.

No, all texts are included in the body of the plan. In cases where there is a responsive story in place of a biblical text, these are given as appendices.

Yes they can. Most of the values inherent in the assemblies will feature in one form or another in a school’s chosen values. (Resilience; self-esteem; thankfulness; mindfulness; physical and mentalwell being; appreciation of our planet and its wonders etc.)

The assemblies are grouped in threes under five different umbrella headings. Below is a brief explanation of each one:

• Super Seeds – linking seeds to potential (Self-esteem)
• Light and Colour – exploring the importance of light in seeing colour (Appreciation of nature)
• Extra Energy – encouraging children to make use of the longer days to up their activities (Physical wellbeing)

• Turning Over a New Leaf – encouraging children to make positive changes (Perseverance/Challenge)
• Metamorphosis – encouraging children to appreciate the benefits at each stage of life (Thankfulness)
• It’s Challenging – helping children to acknowledge that change can be difficult (Resilience)

• People Who Care – encouraging children to be thankful for the people who help them (Thankfulness)
• The World Around – recognizing the ‘wow’ factor in the world around (Appreciation of nature)
• Happy Endings – acknowledging that obstacles can be overcome! (Thankfulness/Resilience)

• Feeling Hopeful – encouraging children to consider their aspirations
• Feeling awake – encouraging healthy habits (Wellbeing)
• Feeling Good – reminding children of their uniqueness (Self-Esteem)

• Eggs Galore! – Easter or Pancake Day
• Good or Sad Friday? – Easter
• Easter Message – Easter

We really hope you will find these resources useful. Now there’s only one key ingredient needed to bring them alive – YOU!