Suitable for Whole School

Aims To teach and enjoy the story. To help children learn coping strategies for bullying situations.

Preparation and materials

• The story is going to be told and enacted. You must be able to keep the action moving as you tell the story, so make sure you know exactly how it is going to be acted out with regard to the space available.
• Brief a teacher to take the role of Goliath. They will be required to 'die' dramatically, so need to be dressed accordingly.
• Another teacher, maybe the Head, is needed to play King Saul, who should sit in a large chair throughout in an area allocated as the ‘camp’.

Curriculum link RE.

Assembly

1. Tell the children that today you are going to think about an adventure that happened to a boy who lived about 1,500 years before Jesus. Absolutely ages ago! The boy was called David... ask if there are any Davids in school today. Ask the smallest (if he's up to it) to come out and take the part of David.

2. Tell and enact the story.

David's people, the Israelites, are at war with the next country. David has seven older brothers, and the three oldest are away at the war.

Ask three boys (or girls) to come out and take the parts of the siblings. If you want to, you can tell them their names: Eliab, Abinadab and Shammah.

The fighting was quite a long way away.

Take the three brothers on a walk around to the other side of the hall, representing the battle area, and leave them there.

Explain that the enemy had a champion, called Goliath, who was huge. Every day Goliath would walk by the camps, challenging the Israelites to fight him.

The teacher playing Goliath walks along in front of the three boys, challenging them by waving a fist.

One day, David's father sends David with some food to the camp. David sees Goliath's challenge.

Walk David to the camp. Goliath repeats his challenge.

David can't believe that no one is prepared to fight Goliath. So he goes to the King, and asks if he can fight Goliath.

David goes to the King, who mimes amazement.

So David goes to fight Goliath. He doesn't want the King's armour; he simply picks up a few stones from the river bank --

David mimes picking up the stones.

-- and goes out to face Goliath. Goliath laughs at David, and says he will kill him. David takes a stone, puts it in his catapult and throws it at Goliath.

David does mime.

Goliath is hit on the head by a stone. 'Oh, my head!', he cries, falls to the ground and dies.

3. Thank the children who have acted in the story, and ask them to go back in their places. Ask the children what we would call Goliath today. What do we call big people who pick on small people? How does it feel to be picked on and laughed at like Goliath laughed at David and his brothers? What should we do if we're picked on? How can we help other people who are being picked on/bullied? Use this as an opportunity to introduce the school’s anti-bullying policy.

Time for reflection
Lord, help us to stand up to bullies.
Help us to stand with people who are being picked on, and not join in with the bullies.
Make us brave,
and help us to remember that you are with us all, and love us all. Amen

Song 'The Lord is My Shepherd' (Come and Praise 56).