A Caring Community
School is a special community
by Gill O’Neill (revised, originally published in 2009)
Suitable for Key Stage 2
Aims
To develop the idea of the school as a caring community.
Preparation and materials
- Have available some images of clubs or organizations with which the children might be involved and the means to display them during the assembly. Examples could include:
- a choir, available at: https://tinyurl.com/y86fpz65
- a football club, available at: https://tinyurl.com/yc5n2lz2
- a tennis club, available at: https://tinyurl.com/y8so3xpr
- Rainbows, available at: https://tinyurl.com/ya3cr75j
Please note that these are generic examples - you may wish to use images of local clubs. - You will also need a means to record the organizations that are named by the children in the ‘Assembly’, Step 1.
Assembly
- Ask the children if they are part of any clubs or organizations. These might be sports clubs, Guiding and Scouting organizations, religious organizations, gyms, charities and choirs.
Make a list of these organizations.
Ask the children to name any other organizations they can think of and add these to the list. - Share with the children some of the groups that you belong to.
- Ask the children why they take part in the groups that they belong to.
Listen to a range of responses. - Point out that these groups are very different from each other, but they do have one thing in common. All of the people who belong to each group share the same interest. For example, all of the people in the guitar group want to learn to play the guitar. All of the children in the football team enjoy playing football. All of the children in the choir enjoy singing.
- If school is not featured on the list, give the children clues as to a community that is missing from the list. If school is on the list, emphasize how important you think this answer is.
- Explain that the school community is very special because it is made up of many different people who have different interests and talents. There are people of different ages and people who have been ‘members’ for a lot longer than others. Some are members because they choose to be, whereas others don’t really have a choice. However, each and every person is an important and valuable member of the school.
- Point out that the way we behave in school affects other people. A community works best when everybody treats each other with respect and kindness. If we think about each other’s feelings and do our best to live in peace together, school will be a happy and special place to be.
Time for reflection
Ask the children to think about the things that they could do today to make the school a happy place for everyone.
Remind the children that if anything goes wrong and they feel sad, they should always ask an adult for help. Then, hopefully any problems can be sorted out quickly and the school community will continue to be happy.
Prayer
Dear God,
We all belong to various communities, clubs and groups.
We pray for all of the people we know in these groups: the leaders and the members as well as ourselves.
We thank you for all those who care for us, our families and our friends, and for our school.
Please help us to look after the people in our school.
Please help us to play our part in making this a happy and special community.
Amen.
