More Secondary School Assemblies

Ronni Lamont

Rating:

Usefully set out in three sections; Christian Festivals, Throughout the Year and World Faiths, this book offers 47 different assemblies suitable for the whole school or specifically for KS3, 4 or 5.

Many of the assemblies involve music and pictures and thus need some preparation. I wonder if the choice of some of the music will ‘date’ the book somewhat although certainly there will always be alternative songs that may well fit the themes. Many have hymn suggestions and a good number have a Bible reading, prayer or reflection included too. I would imagine that some of them would be difficult for a person without a faith to present.

The World Faiths section contains assembly ideas, which can be used for various world faith festivals and, although they are good, I found this the weakest part of the book with little beyond the ‘main’ festivals and not a great deal about world religion ‘beliefs’.

The assemblies are thought provoking, relevant and up to date and will allow the person delivering them to move beyond a more secular ‘thought for the day’ into something that challenges and encourages belief in a sensitive and meaningful way.

The book openly acknowledges that the assemblies it contains are all available online at www.assemblies.org.uk and claims that its users ‘still like a book to thumb through’.

Reviewer: Jocelyn Sumner, Partnership Director, University of Exeter, Devon (Former Head of Religious Education at Teign School, Kingsteignton, Devon)

Review posted on: 27 November 2009

Product information:

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