Collective Worship Ideas

Assemblies.org.uk has 'school assemblies for every season for everyone'. It has lots of assemblies, arranged into months of the year, and for different age groups.

Barnabas in Schools has a few idea for assemblies on their website which are free to use. Click on the image above to visit the website.

This is a collection of assemblies from Scripture Union to help you plan effective Christian school assemblies, quickly and easily.

CAFOD (Catholic Agency For Overseas Development) has a good selection of assembly ideas and resources on their website. Click on the image above to visit their resources for primary school assemblies.

CaSS has written an assembly about the environment, COP26 and climate change which can be used as an assembly. It was initially used as a Harvest assembly but could be adapted and used at any time of the year. Click on the title or image to view or download it.

CaSS has created a sports themed assembly about teamwork. It would be especially applicable to be used around men's and women's sporting tournaments such as the Rugby World Cups, FIFA World Cups or ICC World Cups, but can be used at any time. Click on the title or picture to download it.

Christians in Schools Trust, which is based in Stockport, has a variety of ideas and resources availale for collective worship. Click on the image above to view them.

Ethos Education publishes free resources for teachers to help students explore spiritual, moral, social and cultural issues through contemporary media. Their assembly ideas help pupils to reflect on life issues such as identity, purpose, family, respecting those with different traditions and facing difficult choices. 'But, crucially, each assembly also provides two additional important features with a well-considered rationale,' explained Ethos founder Nick Pollard. 'First, by using extracts from popular feature films the assembly grounds those life issues in the pupil’s contemporary culture. Secondly, by including at the heart of each assembly a relevant passage from the Bible, pupils are enabled to reflect for themselves on what it teaches about the life issue.'

This resource booklet from Scripture Union includes three assembly plans about fears and phobias, Moses and Daniel. Although it is from 2015 it is still a useful tool and can be downloaded from their website by clicking on the image above.

During the pandemic, Open the Book have created video assemblies for teachers wanting to use ready made assemblies, or for OtB teams to keep in touch with schools. A document with links to all of the videos can be viewed or downloaded here. Most of the videos feature Bob Hartman, author of The Lion Storyteller Bible, telling the story part of a session but there are also two OtB teams re-telling a story on a video call. See the CaSS Open the Book page for more assembly ideas.

The Salvation Army has several ideas and resources for assemblies on their website. Click the image above to visit.

There are loads of innovative assembly ideas from Schoolswork UK including video clips, games and tricks. Topics include 'Am I cool?', 'Waiting', 'Adventure', 'Easter' and 'the Cost of Christmas'.  Click on the title or image to visit their website.

Spinnaker Trust prepares, delivers and distributes resources for Collective Worship and RE lessons, supporting schools and equipping schools workers. Check out their resources by clicking on their logo.

Fiona has compiled a helpful list of assembly ideas for Primary Schools, which includes links to videos, mostly on Youtube. Click on the image above to download the list.

Use the PowerPoint presentation: Ask what the various acronyms mean.

WWJD  - Ask for suggestions of how Jesus behaved.

Possible Bible verses to use: 'Love your neighbour as yourself' Matthew 19:19, 'The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.' Galatians 5:22-23

If you have time you could add the story of The Parable of the Good Samaritan, ending with the words 'Go and do the same'. Luke 10:25–37.

Thank you to Chris Burch, Headteacher at Birkdale School, Sheffield for sharing his PowerPoint presentation.