Don’t Give Up

Pursuing what we want to do

by Becky May

Suitable for Key Stage 2

Aims

To use Malorie Blackman’s experiences to encourage us to persevere and never give up.

Preparation and materials

• Have available the video ‘Rejection letters’ and the means to show it during the assembly. It is 1.23 minutes long and is available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0d9nw7m

Assembly

1. Welcome the children to the assembly.
   
   Ask them to think about a goal that they have, something that they want to achieve or pursue. Explain that their goal might be something that they want to do right now, or something that is far in the future. Invite the children to share their ideas, if they are happy to do so, encouraging them as you do.
   
   
2. Tell the children that sometimes, our goals are easy to achieve, but often, they are not. Many people have to work hard for a long time to achieve their goal, and there may be times when they are tempted to give up.
   
   
3. Ask the children whether they can think of someone they admire who has persevered to achieve their goal. It might be someone in the public eye, or it might be someone they know personally. Perhaps their achievements are not widely known, but the children look up to them.
   
   Invite the children to share some of their stories and briefly discuss why these are inspiring, acknowledging and affirming the children’s selections.
   
   
4. Explain that we often see someone’s success or achievements without seeing the hard work that has happened behind the scenes. We can believe that success comes easily to some people, and that if we hit a rocky road, we should give up, but that isn’t true.
   
   
5. Ask the children whether they have heard of the author Malorie Blackman. Remind them of some of her best-known works, including Noughts and Crosses, Pig Heart Boy and Cloud Busting. Explain that she has previously been the Children’s Laureate and is now a hugely successful writer who has won many awards for her books. However, it wasn’t always like this.
   
   
6. Show the video ‘Rejection letters’ (1.23 minutes long).
   
   Explain that the video shows a clip from an interview with Malorie Blackman in 2022.
   
   
7. Ask the children how they felt when they watched the video.
   
   - Why do they think Malorie kept the letters?
   - Would they do the same thing?
   - Would they keep going even after being rejected this many times?
   
   
8. Remind the children that Malorie received 82 rejection letters before her first book was published.
   
   In the video, she says, ‘When you find the thing that you feel you’re born to do, you don’t let it go in a hurry.’ Explain that this is a good way of defining perseverance. None of us can be successful at everything that we try, but for each of us, there will be something that we feel born to do, and we don’t want to let go of that.
   
   
9. Ask the children for ideas of how to cope with knock-backs that stand in the way of our goals. How can we avoid becoming discouraged and giving up along the way?
   
   Optional: you may wish to note down the ideas so that you can include them in a perseverance-themed display.

Time for reflection

Encourage the children to make themselves really quiet and think about what we’ve discovered today about perseverance.

Optional: Jesus once told a story about perseverance. It was about persevering in prayer. He told a story about a woman who was a widow, so she had no authority, but she wouldn’t give up. She went back to the judge over and over again, pleading for justice. The judge was neither a good judge nor a kind man, but eventually, her persistence wore him down and he did the right thing by her.

Jesus taught that God is good and will hear our prayers, but that we should be like the widow in the story when something matters to us, taking it back to God again and again, never giving up. Perhaps we have experienced God answering our prayers. Perhaps it was over something that we asked for many times. Alternatively, perhaps we’ve asked God for help with something once and we realize that we need to persevere in our requests.

Prayer
Dear God,
Thank you for Malorie Blackman, and for all those who inspire us with their stories of perseverance.
Please help us to keep going, and never to give up.
Please help us to encourage others to keep going too.
Amen.

Song/music

‘Never give up’ by Hillsong Kids, available at: https://youtu.be/15R6SNZ-K1g (2.41 minutes long)

Extension activities

1. Select a Malorie Blackman novel or short story as your class reader. There are many issues that can be explored through her stories.
2. Create a class display of inspirational perseverers: people who pushed through and worked hard to achieve their goals. You could include some of the advice that children suggested during the assembly.