Pennington School

This morning Sarah and I went along to Pennington School for the first assembly of the new term.  It was lovely to see all the children again, it was also a beautiful day and as Sarah introduced herself she said what a good day it was to Be Happy on - that was our first song.  Following the song I lifted Scruff's bag onto his stand and reintroduced him to the children - but Scruff wasn't so happy in fact he was quite sad and down.  So I asked him what the problem was and he poured out (or is that pawed out?) his troubles.  He had some funny feelings as a result of moving from the puppy grooming parlour to the big dog grooming parlour.  He felt alone and a bit scared.  I asked the children for some suggestions as to what we could do - answers like help him to make friends, give him a hug and provide him with some dog treats were some of the answers the children came up with.  So I gave him a pat on the head, a tickle under the chin and a dog treat put him back in the bag and Sarah explored some of the suggestions with the children.  She talked about feeling a bit scared when we are in school particularly when you are new to the school like the reception children, and using the ideas the children had for Scruff Sarah linked them to how we could help the new children.  Sarah also linked it to Matthew 25:35ff when Jesus was talking about being thirst, hungry and sick and how he said that whenever we do things to help others it is as if we are doing it to him and for him.  Therefore by doing those things to others we Shine from the inside out - which was a cue for the final song.  After the song Sarah closed the assembly off with a prayer.