What Do You Stand For?
The importance of being loyal
by Rachael Crisp
Suitable for Whole School (Pri)
Aims
To reflect upon the term ‘loyalty’ and its meaning.
Preparation and materials
- You will need the PowerPoint slides that accompany this assembly (What Do You Stand For) and the means to display them. You may wish to add the school logo to the slides.
- Have available the YouTube video ‘Daniel and The Lions’ Den – Friends and Heroes – English Animated Bible Story’ and the means to show it during the assembly. It is 3.48 minutes long and is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8tXENptCSo
Assembly
- Ask the children if they know what a logo is. Ask them if they can think of a logo and describe it.
Listen to a range of responses. - Show Slides 1 to 7 in turn, asking the children if they know what each image represents.
- Slide 1 shows the Union Jack, the flag of the UK.
- Slide 2 shows the England football badge.
- Slide 3 shows the McDonald’s logo.
- Slide 4 shows the Apple logo.
- Slide 5 shows the Swoosh, the logo of Nike.
- Slide 6 shows the symbol of Christianity.
- Slide 7 shows the Starbucks logo. - Explain that when people wear branded clothing or school uniform, they are automatically showing their support for that brand or school. Some football fans are so loyal to their team that they would never wear the colours of a rival team. Some people are so against certain products that they would boycott going to a shop that sold that product. The term ‘loyalty’ is defined as ‘a strong feeling of support or allegiance’.
- Ask the children to think about the qualities that they would like most in a good friend.
Listen to a range of responses.
Point out that a sign of a good friend is someone who is loyal. - Explain that you are going to read out a series of situations and you would like the children to decide whether the people in these friendships are being loyal or disloyal.
Example 1: you and your friend are skateboarding in the park when someone starts being horrible to your friend. You walk off and hide. Is this loyal or disloyal?
Listen to responses and discuss them.
Example 2: you have a best friend, but she is unwell and off school. You are playing with another friend who starts to be horrible about your unwell friend. You go along with what she is saying. Is this loyal or disloyal?
Listen to responses and discuss them.
Example 3: your friend is going through a hard time and gets upset easily. You take time to listen and try to help. Is this loyal or disloyal?
Listen to responses and discuss them. - Many people are loyal to a brand, a shop, a sports team, a school or their friends. However, we can also be loyal to our principles, beliefs and faith.
- In the Bible, we read the story of Daniel. Daniel is a man who remained loyal to God even when he got in trouble for it. He thought that it was more important to follow his belief in God than to bow down to what other people said, even the king.
Show the YouTube video ‘Daniel and The Lions’ Den – Friends and Heroes – English Animated Bible Story’.
Time for reflection
Loyalty is a good characteristic to have. If we have loyal friends, we are very fortunate.
Let’s pause to think about how we can show loyalty to people today.
Pause to allow time for thought.
Let’s think about people who are loyal to us: our family, friends, sports coaches and teachers.
Pause to allow time for thought.
Prayer
Dear God,
Thank you for the example of loyalty that we see in Daniel.
Please help us to be willing to stand up for what is right.
Help us to think about the needs of others.
Please help us to be people full of love for others.
Help us to be loyal friends.
Amen.
Song/music
‘The prayer of St Francis (Make me a channel of your peace)’ (Come and Praise, 147)
