|
|
 |
|
|
Carleton St. Hilda’s Church of England Primary School As part of our SEAL work in school this term, we have been talking about taking responsibility in a bid to try and help the children become more proactive and use their initiative around school for the benefit of others.
In assembly the other day, I had a green bean bag inside a hoop on the floor at the front of the hall and I asked the children if that was is where it should be and then gave them time to talk to their neighbours about the conundrum. One child in Year 1 said it should be outside the circle because then it would be free. Another child, this time in Year 3, said that if it was outside the circle it then could go anywhere it wanted.
We then moved on to talk about if the bean bag was us and we were outside the circle we could do new things but that there were some responsibilities associated with our free will. We couldn’t just do anything we pleased or go anywhere we wanted, there are always consequences of our actions.
A group of children came and stood in a circle and passed the bean bag round the circle between them as I talked about different ways we could handle responsibility, namely: getting rid of it as quickly as possible because it was nothing to do with us, pretending not to understand so getting rid of it that way, dropping it etc.
I than asked the children to see if they could take responsibility and I gave them responsibility by passing the bean bag around the hall. We then sat to pray and I asked the children to think about the gift they had just been given and gave them time to work out what they wanted to do with it.
There is a green bean bag on the door outside my room and it is amazing what the children say when I ask them what it means – the answers so far have ranged from it means: respect, peace, we should try to sort out arguments for ourselves, we need to think for ourselves, we can smile at each other, we should all be friends etc.
It is beginning to work, the children are beginning to make things happen by themselves. For instance, the infants have asked for lockers to put their belongings in and so far, the children have raised a very commendable £300 in various ways towards the cost. I have never had so many letters!
**************************
As our Year 6 children move to pastures new, amongst our best wishes and the memories of their time here, we hope they will remember this assembly and the fact that they can make things happen, they can make a difference, if they take a little time to think and make the right choices. We hope they keep in touch and let us know how they get on in the future. School will not be the same without them. We will miss them.
Beverley Grime
Headteacher
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
