Suitable for Whole School

To mark HM The Queen’s 80th birthday and to consider the value that older people bring to society.

None needed.

1. Introduce the theme by asking if anyone knows of a birthday around this time. Value all suggestions and, if no one has mentioned the Queen’s 80th birthday, ask some leading questions, such as: ‘Does anyone know of a very important person in our country who has a birthday coming up … an 80th birthday?’
   
2. Ask the children: ‘How many birthdays will you have before you’re 80?’ and take some responses. Give a little help with the arithmetic, if necessary. Ask: ‘Can anyone work out what year the Queen was born in?’
   
3. Suggest that the Queen will have seen a lot of changes in her life. If appropriate, draw on any work KS2 children have done on Britain since the 1930s by asking about some of the things the Queen has seen, such as the Second World War. Point out that younger children will probably not know as much about these events because they have not studied them yet; after all, the older we get, the more we learn. And, if that is true, how much more must a person of 80 know than anyone in the hall at the moment - brilliant brainy teachers and teaching assistants included!
   
4. Suggest that, apart from learning facts, there is another reason why older people know things: they develop wisdom. Ask if anyone knows what wisdom is. Accept the children’s ideas and suggest that wisdom is learning what is best from experience. Wise people don’t just know facts, they know how to help other people to do what’s best. The Old Testament of the Bible says a lot about wisdom including:
   
   ‘Happy is the man who becomes wise - who gains understanding. There is more profit in it than there is in silver; it is worth more to you than gold’ (Proverbs 3:13, 14).
   
   So the person who wrote that thinks wisdom is more important than any amount of money. Do you think the writer would think that our Queen is wise?
   
5. Option.
   Introduce this extract from a famous poem by explaining that the writer’s wisdom told her that, as she got older, time seemed to move faster.
   
   The Flying Wheel
   Katharine Tynan Hinkson (1861-1931)
   
   When I was young the days were long,
   Oh, long the days when I was young:
   So long from morn to evenfall
   As they would never end at all.
   
   Now I grow old, Time flies, alas!
   I watch the years and seasons pass.
   Time turns him with his fingers thin
   A wheel that whirls while it doth spin.
   
   There is no time to take one’s ease,
   For to sit still and be at peace:
   Oh, whirling wheel of Time, be still,
   Let me be quiet if you will!
   
   A birthday is a time to stop the ‘whirling wheel of time’ for a while, to have a chance to celebrate with our friends and have a special day. Let’s hope the Queen enjoys her special day as she parties with people all over the country.

Time for reflection
 

Reflection

Happy is the man who becomes wise - who gains understanding. There is more profit in it than there is in silver; it is worth more to you than gold.

How can you become wiser?

Prayer

Dear God,

We think of the Queen who has seen so much in her life, some happy times like the end of the Second World War; some sad, like the deaths of members of her family.

We pray for her on her 80th birthday, that she will be able to enjoy the celebrations on her very special day.

Amen.

Suggested song

‘One more step’ (Come and Praise, 47)