“True prayer is neither a mere mental exercise nor a vocal performance. It is far deeper than that. It is a spiritual transaction with the creator of Heaven and Earth.” – Charles Spurgeon This blog post follows on from here, offering three more ways you might explore prayer. As said in the previous […]
“The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.” – Soren Kierkegaard In the Big Start Assemblies, you will notice that there are various ways to encourage prayer and reflection. It is important to not be too directional at these times, but give […]
A primary purpose of collective worship is to create space for children to think, engage and respond. We therefore need to shape our time together in such a way that we create some key moments for this to happen. One helpful approach to consider is ‘Head, Heart and Hands’ framework. Head for thinking; Heart for […]
Assemblies are a shop window on your values, your approach to working with children, how you see your community as well as how you talk about God with those of little or no faith. It is therefore important to make a positive impression, so here are my top tips: + “Be yourself; everyone else […]
We are pleased to announce that the Big Start Assemblies library just got a lot bigger. We have now added a further 44 new assemblies, which equates to over one school calendar years’ worth of new resources for Collective Worship. This also means that an annual subscription now includes 124 Assemblies with plans, PowerPoint slides, films, songs and graphics to choose […]
If you really want to deliver great primary school assemblies here’s a top tip – plan some engagement into your assembly… For effective engagement in school assembly time, few things work as well as getting the pupils involved. Firstly, here are three reasons why you should get your pupils involved, then I’ll share three ways […]
You’re used to differentiation in the classroom, but how can this apply to your assembly plans? It’s not just about learning, it’s about encounter… What allows children to be able to access worship and feel welcome and included? In the classroom you might think of this in terms of making sure every child has the […]
Fitting activities, games, songs, stories and more into your primary school collective worship can be difficult. Here’s how to make it work… Planning assemblies can be difficult – particularly for busy teachers. You might have the “perfect” collective worship lined up – everything hangs together, you have a consistent message, a variety of ways for […]
Improve your collective worship with these great storytelling ideas. There is nothing quite as mind numbing in a school assembly as having a story read out of a book in a monotone voice. The book could be anything – a text book describing quadratic equations or a gripping tale like “Out of the Silent Planet” […]
The importance of practice when preparing collective worship. I don’t need to tell you how much there is to do as a teacher. In the midst of all the demands preparing collective worship and getting ready for an assembly might feel like just another task. But good preparation is vital. If you want collective worship […]
Desperately searching for creative assembly ideas? As the new academic year begins, it’s been great to see primary schools across the country using the Big Start Assemblies resources. Busy teachers are loving the ideas and hassle-free planning that helps them craft fun collective worship sessions. Looking for assembly ideas? You could join over five hundred […]
Helping save you time planing collective worship… So many great assemblies, not sure where to start? Well, we have produced two optional guides for how we think you could effectively spread out your Big Start Assemblies across the year. The Series-Based Assembly Calendar helps spread out the values over the whole year, whilst allowing continuity […]
