Seal Assemblies for Primary School

By Ronni Lamont

The Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning (SEAL) programme is a UK government initiative designed to help children and young people develop social and emotional intelligence. SEAL aims to help children nurture skills such as understanding another's point of view, working in a group, sticking at things when they get difficult, resolving conflict and managing worries. SEAL Assemblies for Primary Schools is a collection of 42 SEAL-themed assemblies, edited by Ronni Lamont. A new addition to the highly successful SPCK Assemblies Book series, it will be a valuable resource for primary school teachers and clergy who wish to implement the SEAL curriculum.

• Language: English
• Publisher: SPCK
• Release date: Sep 15, 2011
• ISBN: 9780281067244

Ronni Lamont

Ronni Lamont worked for many years as a teacher, was the vicar at St John's Bexley and chaplain and governor at the local primary school and chair of the Rochester Diocesan Children's Committee. She is currently a Faith and Nurture advisor at the diocese of Canterbury. Ronni is an accredited Godly Play teacher and her MA dissertation explored storytelling in relation to children's spirituality. She is the author of Faith in Children. 

Book preview

First published in Great Britain in 2011

Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge

36 Causton Street

London SW1P 4ST

www.spckpublishing.co.uk

Copyright © SPCK 2011

The authors of the individual assemblies included in this work have asserted their rights under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as such.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

SPCK does not necessarily endorse the individual views contained in its publications.

The author and publisher have made every effort to ensure that the external website and email addresses included in this book are correct and up to date at the time of going to press. The author and publisher are not responsible for the content, quality or continuing accessibility of the sites.

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Anglicized Edition, copyright © 1989, 1995 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978–0–281–06467–0

eBook ISBN 978–0–281–06724–4

Typeset by PDQ Typesetting Ltd

First printed in Great Britain by Ashford Colour Press

Subsequently digitally printed in Great Britain

Produced on paper from sustainable forests

eBook by Graphicraft Ltd, Hong Kong

Content

List of contributors

Introduction

1 NEW BEGINNINGS

Happy birthday to you! (Whole School)

The Revd Alan M. Barker

Making new friends (Whole School)

The Revd Sophie Jelley

New (Key Stages 1 and 2)

Helen Redfern

In a maze (Whole School)

Jan Edmunds

Fresh starts (Key Stage 2)

Jenny Tuxford

Looking forward, looking back (Key Stage 2)

The Revd Alan M. Barker

2 GETTING ON AND FALLING OUT

Needing to belong (Key Stage 2)

Jude Scrutton

Jigsaw puzzles (Whole School)

Gordon and Ronni Lamont

Tangled up in knots (Key Stage 2)

The Revd Alan M. Barker

Two sides to every argument (Key Stage 2)

Jenny Tuxford

The angry volcano (Key Stage 1)

Janice Ross

Friends or fiends? (Whole School)

The Revd Alan M. Barker

3 SAY NO TO BULLYING

Ganging up on Joseph (Key Stage 2)

Janice Ross

Cool to be kind (Key Stage 2)

Helen Redfern

David and Goliath (Key Stage 2)

Jude Scrutton

I feel . . . (Key Stage 2)

Gordon Lamont

A bully speaks (Key Stage 2)

Jude Scrutton

Elijah and the bully (Whole School)

Janice Ross

4 GOING FOR GOALS!

Inside every tiny caterpillar (Key Stage 1)

The Revd Alan M. Barker

Be a smarty (Whole School)

Janice Ross

Perseverance (Whole School)

Jan Edmunds

The persistent spider (Key Stage 2)

Jude Scrutton

How do I learn? (Key Stage 2)

Gordon Lamont

Keeping going (Whole School)

Guy Donegan-Cross

5 GOOD TO BE ME

Rainbow children (Key Stage 1)

Ronni Lamont

It’s good to be me (Key Stage 1)

Janice Ross

Seeing things through (Whole School)

Jude Scrutton

It’s OK to be different (Key Stages 1 and 2)

Helen Redfern

It’s a sock’s life (Whole School)

Jude Scrutton

Do you know me? (Key Stage 2)

Gordon Lamont

6 RELATIONSHIPS

Canes and imagination (Whole School)

Guy Donegan-Cross

Good neighbours (Whole School)

Helen Redfern

Who’s telling the truth? (Key Stage 2)

The Revd Alan M. Barker

People who help us (Whole School)

Manon Ceridwen Parry

The power of words (Whole School)

Guy Donegan-Cross

It’s everything to do with me (Key Stage 2)

Guy Donegan-Cross

7 CHANGES

A scarf, a carrot and some lumps of coal (Whole School)

The Revd Alan M. Barker

Feelings of change (Whole School)

Rebecca Parkinson

Summer holidays (Whole School)

Jan Edmunds

Summertime (Whole School)

Jan Edmunds

Off to Hogwarts (Whole School)

The Revd Alan M. Barker

Message in a bottle (Whole School)

The Revd Alan M. Barker

Search items

Contributors

The Revd Alan M Barker is a Methodist minister who has worked in Lincolnshire for the past 25 years. Currently serving in South Holland, he helps to lead assemblies/collective worship in six local schools. A long-standing, popular contributor to the SPCK Assemblies website, Alan also enjoys photography and the countryside.

Guy Donegan-Cross is a former secondary school teacher and now vicar of St Mark’s, Harrogate. He has four children, all at school, and his wife is a school chaplain, so he gets plenty of opportunity to practise his assemblies and have them analysed!

Jan Edmunds was born and educated in Peterborough and qualified as a primary school teacher. One of our regular contributors, after many years as a primary teacher, Jan now enjoys a busy retirement travelling and doing all the things she did not have time for before.

The Revd Sophie Jelley is a vicar in the Diocese of Chichester with a passion for ministry among children and families. She has a lively household with three children, a pet corn snake and a treadmill where she ‘prayer runs’ most days and thinks up creative assemblies!

Gordon Lamont is a freelance writer, radio producer and consultant. Much of his work is with the highly respected BBC Learning division and he was the founding editor of <www.assemblies.org.uk>. Gordon is an agnostic who values assemblies as times of celebration and reflection on both personal growth and the big issues of life. He is 21 years old, but as the Buddha says, do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it.

Ronni Lamont is a freelance writer and trainer who specializes in children’s spirituality. Previously a secondary teacher of science and dance, she then enjoyed 16 years as an Anglican priest. The editor of <www.assemblies.org.uk>, she now writes far fewer assemblies than she did previously!

Rebecca Parkinson lives in Lancashire with her husband Ted and their two children. Since graduating from Nottingham and Manchester universities, Rebecca has worked as a teacher, science teacher adviser and university lecturer. She writes regularly for the SPCK Assemblies website and is the author of a number of children’s books. Along with her husband, Rebecca also leads the youth and children’s work in a local church. In her spare time she enjoys any type of sport, especially netball, badminton, kayaking and other outdoor pursuits.

Manon Ceridwen Parry is the rector of Llanddulas and Llysfaen and is also the St Asaph Tutor for St Michael’s Theological College, Llandaff. She has regularly led assemblies in English and Welsh, in both church and community primary schools. Manon has been in ordained ministry for 16 years and was among the first women in the Church in Wales to be ordained priest. She also writes poetry and has had several poems published in literary magazines and journals. She teaches ministry skills and practical theology and is currently undertaking a part-time PhD, researching the impact of the religious traditions in Wales on women’s self-esteem and identity.

Helen Redfern loves writing assemblies and stories that communicate, inspire, stimulate and challenge. Having five children of her own keeps her in touch with popular culture and the big issues with which children are currently engaging. She has enjoyed delivering her assemblies in the local primary school – all feedback is always welcome!

Janice Ross lives in the beautiful northern islands of Orkney. She worked in island schools for most of her teaching career before heading out to Burundi, Central Africa, where she helped establish a Christian school. She now works from home, writing curriculum resources for Christian school and home-schooling parents (see <http://schooloftheword.co.uk>). She loves investigating Orkney’s wonderful coastline with her three young grandchildren and her miniature schnauzer, Skara.

Jude Scrutton was born in Northamptonshire but moved to the north-west of England for his university years, where he studied PE and Teaching at Edge Hill University College. He has been teaching for 11 years, two of which were spent in Singapore. He has been married for five years and has two wonderful children: Emily aged four and Asher aged two. He enjoys playing all sports, particularly hockey and football, and is an avid Manchester United fan.

Jenny Tuxford was a junior school teacher with special responsibility for English, art and display, and school productions. Since her retirement she has produced several articles for magazines and has written and had published three stories for children. She has also had several exhibitions of her watercolour flower paintings. She very much enjoys writing short assemblies in rhyme.

Introduction

It’s been a few years since SEAL (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning) was set in motion, and up and down the country, schools have embraced the concept and worked hard with it. The framework of one theme per term, with Relationships as a general theme over the top, was carefully planned, and schools have been using the themes in both assemblies and PSHE lessons to help children think about how we live together in a more inclusive and successful manner.

The website <www.assemblies.org.uk> has been publishing SEAL-themed assemblies since 2009, and this book contains some of the best of those previously published, alongside brand new assemblies to help schools deliver SEAL. You might think that some of the assemblies would also fit other themes – and you would be right! There is quite a lot of overlap between some of