Antisectarian

Anti-sectarian Assembly Plans - We Can Do Good

We Can Do Good

Aims:
This assembly is designed to explore different groups and communities. It tries to draw out what it means to belong to a group or community.

Get the children thinking about how people show they belong to a certain group.

Emphasise that each individual within a community can do something to help others.

Required:
OHP, piano or CD Player with good speakers.

Props: box containing objects which indicate belonging to a certain group or community. These may include:

  • a football shirt from a local team or teams
  • a school sweatshirt
  • a uniform for Brownies / Beavers / Rainbows / Guides
  • a chain with a cross
  • a copy of the Quran
  • other items belonging to other faith/belief groups within the
  • school
  • some souvenir from the town / village the school is in or the local newspaper front cover would do

Music from Fischy Music: 'We can do good' from the Build Up album.

Time:
Around 15 minutes.

Suitable for:
P 3-7.

The Assembly:

Introduction:
'Today's assembly is all about belonging. You may belong to several different groups or communities at the same time. Each of you is a member of a family, but you are also a member of your class and a pupil at this school. You may also belong to other clubs or groups.'

Now ask the pupils:

'Is there anyone here who belongs to a club outside school?' (Take one or two suggestions such as rugby, football, drama, music, Brownies, Woodcraft folk, majorettes etc.)

'How do you show that you belong to a certain group?' (Again, take suggestions such as wearing a uniform, going to a certain place at a certain time, wearing a badge.)

'I've got some objects in this box that show that someone belongs to a certain group or community. Can you guess what it is?' (Take each of the objects out of the box one by one, and get the children to guess the group).

Presentation:
Listen to this story about Kevin and Naina.

Kevin and Naina go to the same school. They are also both in the school football team. Kevin and Naina love talking about football and who their favourite players are.

Does anyone here like football? Who are your favourite players? Take a few names from the pupils (make sure you pick boys as well as girls to respond).

Though they were great friends at school, they did not see each other outside school. The communities they belonged to did not really mix.

Kevin was a Christian and Naina was Muslim.

One day, Kevin was being bullied at school and called rude names because he supported the wrong football team. The bullies picked on him, called him bad names and threw his lunch onto the ground. This happened again the next day but this time the bullies started to punch Kevin. Naina, who had seen what had happened the day before, ran up to help her friend. Naina then took Kevin to the playground supervisor who reported the bullies to the headteacher.

Later that afternoon, Kevin's mum Susan came to Naina's house. She had brought a huge bunch of flowers and a cake as a way to say thank you to Naina. Naina's mum and dad invited Susan in for a cup of tea. They all got on really well.

Since that day Naina has been over to Kevin's house and Kevin has come round for tea at Naina's. This year Kevin will be joining Naina at her community's Eid celebrations. Eid Al-Fitr is all about celebrating the good things that we have received from Allah (pbuh) also for our family and friends. Naina has also been invited for Christmas in Kevin's house. Christmas is also a celebration: it is a time for joy for Christians who remember the birth of Jesus Christ.

Kevin and Naina are both looking forward to getting lots of presents. Kevin and Naina now belong to even more groups than before, they belong to the same school, the same football team and now they are part of each other's families and communities.

Conclusions:
We can all do good for each other - just like Naina helping Kevin.

We can join new groups and communities just like Naina and Kevin.

'Doing good' is great but it does require extra work. For Naina, she had to be quite brave to take on those bullies.

Let us end by singing a song about doing good. It is called 'We Can Do Good'.

[As the song is very lively, why not get the pupils standing ready to hand jive and do the twist.]

If your school operates a 'We Can Do Good' award or some other recognition or merit award, you could hand these out now before the music starts.