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Connections

Key Stage

3 and 4

Theme

Connections

Background

This Collective Worship relates to the REEP secondary modules.

Aim

  1. To introduce the idea that all humans are connected in some way, and have responsibilities to each other.
  2. To introduce / extend the work on REEP secondary modules

Preparation

Prepare a series of large pieces of card. In bold letters, write the names of groups of people who affect the life of the school, ranging from the most direct (e.g. cleaners, cooks, caretakers) to those in the wider community, (e.g. governors, police, faith groups) the least direct (e.g. government officials and politicians, providers of material for equipment etc). The exact names to be used can be discussed and prepared as part of one of the secondary modules.

Ask a group of say five people to hold up the cards. Each will hold two or three.

Introduction

(The introduction can be done by a student)

First thing this morning, when you got up, who did you think you were going to meet today?

How many people contributed to us being here this morning?

(in turn, each student holds up a card saying e.g. parents, bus driver, radio presenter, baker etc..)

How many people contribute to us having this building to meet in?

(hold up cards again, e.g.cleaner, local education authority, builder etc)

How many people contribute to our learning?

(hold up cards again, e.g. teachers, television, authors, friends, etc Include faith groups)

Think for a minute of all the people that we come into contact with. It's like looking at the night sky. We can't see the full picture, it just goes on and on. Are we at the centre of it? Or are we at the edge? Are we just incidental? Or are we at the heart? Who created it all? And why? These are questions that humans have been asking for centuries.

One thing is for sure, we cannot avoid being part of a whole series of inter-connections.

While we listen to this piece of music, think for a moment of all the people that are connected with your life. Think of the way they affect you. Think of the way you affect them. Everyone is linked, everyone is part of creation.

Music

Mozart Piano Concerto (K 21) or another reflective instrumental piece.

Prayer

'Adam's children are the limbs of one another
For in creation, they are from one substance.
When time causes pain to one limb
The other limbs rest.
If you do not care for the afflictions of others
You do not deserve to be called a human being.'

(Verse from a poem by the Persian Sufi poet Sadi 'Faiths for a Future' p.79)

End with a replay of some of the music.