We had a visit from our friends at www.kidsinspire.org.uk for our Tuesday assemblies this week. Our visitors got us thinking about positive strategies to help us manage our worries. We ALL worry about something sometimes.
When we do, we can…
What do you find helpful when you are worrying about something?
We started getting excited about the 2024 Paris Olympics in assemblies this week.
Did you know…Olympics officials have unveiled the gold, silver and bronze medals that will be awarded at this summer’s Olympic games in Paris, and each one contains a unique souvenir: a fragment of scrap iron from the Eiffel Tower!
The Paris 2024 mascots have been revealed! They are based on the red caps worn during the French Revolution and represent freedom. These cute characters hope to encourage people to be inspired by the Olympics and get active themselves!
We watched a video about Paralympian athlete, Beth Munro. She met some children to inspire them to try different sports. Beth competed in netball and javelin before winning her silver Taekwondo medal. We discussed which sports we are excited to watch during the Olympics and which ones we love to take part in, or would like to try.
April 22nd was the 70th annual Earth Day so in assemblies this week we thought about what we can do to look after our world…
For example…
What will you do?
In our upper school assembly today we learnt about the UK’s Covid-19 inquiry, which is trying to help us in the future by learning from the past. But the inquiry won’t just involve talking to politicians and doctors about the decisions made during the pandemic. Many children and young people, from aged 9, will be asked about their experiences back then.
So, in assembly children from Years 4 to 6 shared some of their memories from the Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdowns in 2020 and 2021 when the school closed. It was a very difficult time for a lot of people and we talked about the challenges people faced. But we also reflected on some of the positive things that came from that time. We thought back to the things we missed most and realised we’d taken for granted.
What do you remember from that time?
In our lower school assembly today we learnt about the Sikh festival of Vaisakhi which took place at the weekend. We spotted similarities and differences between this religious celebration and the other special days we have learnt about in recent assemblies.
Having learnt about Eid and Holi in recent weeks, we discussed the Christian festival of Easter in our lower school assembly this week.
We shared the Easter story and then watched a video about what one family does to celebrate spring and new life at Easter.
We discussed our favourite things about this time of year. What do you love about spring arriving?
In this week’s lower school assembly we learnt about the Hindu festival of Holi which will be celebrated at the end of March this year.
The videos we watched helped us discuss which parts of the fesitval that we would enjoy.
It wasn’t just the paint throwing! Children liked the look of the food, the music and the dancing.
We talked about how we can be curious about and inspired by other people’s faith, families and traditions.
For example, our parent association’s Colour Run event is inspired by Holi! This year’s event is on May 24th!
In our Tuesday assemblies this week we learnt about Ramadan and Eid.
We watched CBeebies and Newsround videos to find out more but we also listened and learnt from pupils from Lawford Mead families who are fasting and planning to celebrate Eid al-Fitr.
We’ll be ready to wish them Eid Mubarak at the end of Ramadan!
In our Tuesday assemblies this week we learnt about an inspirational young hero, Sky Brown.
We watched two videos about Olympic medal winning skateboarder Sky Brown and her aspiration to compete in surfing at this year’s Paris Olympics, as well as skateboarding!
Sky became Team GB’s youngest ever Olympic medalist at Tokyo 2020. She takes pride in inspiring girls and young people to pursue their passions, try new things and strive to achieve their dreams.
Sky wasn’t able to qualify for surfing at Paris 2024 in the end but she said she is still proud of herself and will focus on achieving that goal in the 2028 Olympics instead. She says the challenges she goes through just motivate her more and make her successes feel even more special when they do come. So she is a great model of resilience as well as passion and resilience!
What do you think we can learn from Sky Brown?
Having talked about Shrove Tuesday in an assembly before the half term break, we learnt more about Ash Wednesday and Lent in our lower school assembly this week.
On Ash Wednesday many Christian churches hold services during which Christians are marked on the forehead with a cross of ashes. This is a sign of saying sorry to God for any wrong-doing.
We talked about times we have had to say sorry and how it can be hard to do sometimes. Forgiving people who say sorry to us can be hard too. But we all agreed that apologies and forgiveness can make us all feel better and move on in a positive way.
We shared the bible story of the prodigal son, which Jesus told to help people understand the importance of forgiveness.
