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Transitional – Coping with Change

Assembly aim: to think about and explore the different changes going on around us and how we can cope with these and how God can help us with these changes.

Opening: Introduce yourself, who you are, what you do etc.

Explain: explain that this morning you will be thinking about change, explaining that change happens for all the time, some big changes, some little changes and that change simply means something being different.

Ask: Who here has ever moved house? Keep your hands up if you found it scary or difficult getting used to your new house.

Who here has ever been on a plane? How may of you found your first trip on a plane scary?

Explain: Sometimes the big changes in our lives can be really scary because we don’t know what’s going to happen. If we move house we don’t know if we’re going to like our new house as much as our old one or if we’re getting on a plane for the first time to go somewhere exciting on holiday it can be scary because we’ve never been flying before.

And all of you here are going to go through a change in the next few months, some of you will move up a class and get a new teacher…and new teachers can be scary because they don’t know us as well as our current teachers…some of us might have younger brothers or sisters coming up to start school in September and so we have to get used to having them around and some of the older people here will be moving up to secondary school in September and that’ll be a big change for them!

Ask: Hands up who’s changing school in September? Who’s nervous about it? Who’s got lots of questions? (if you’re presenting the year 6’s with ‘it’s your move’ books afterwards you might like to also allow time for a question and answer session with them and tell that at this point in the assembly that it’s coming up later)

Explain: Thinking about moving up to new schools I want to play a game that you can all join in with. Who’s ever seen family fortunes on TV?

In family fortunes a group of people are asked a question and the family playing have to try and guess the most popular answers…so we’re going to do that this morning and you can all play!

We asked 750 school children ‘what is the scariest thing about moving to secondary school?’ (Game concept and answers taken from Scripture Union’s ‘it’s your move’ assembly resource)

Top Answers

  • Older children being there and them getting bullied
  • Getting lost
  • Fear of not making friends/knowing anyone
  • Amount of work/homework
  • Size of school

(you may need to reassure children as you read out some of these answers)

When I was 11 we moved house and I moved school all at the same time and when I started this new school it was scary because I didn’t know anyone but there were lots of people to help.

Question: Can you think of people who can help you with changes? (Mum and Dad for flying, friends with changing school, teachers, youth workers)

Explain: The good news is that whilst there are lots of changes going on and some van be scary there are lots of people around to help us with them, whether it’s our friends, family or teachers at our old and new schools and as a Christian I believe that God can help us in difficult circumstances too and I’d like to share a story with you about someone in the bible who went through something very difficult but found that God was with him all the time.

Story of Daniel: Find a creative way of telling the story of Daniel (Script was written by Scripture Union so not included for copyright reasons but it covered Daniel chapters 1 and 2)

Explain: In that story there were some big changes that happened to Daniel and his friends…they went to a new country, they wore different clothes, they met knew people and they were away from their family but they knew that they could trust God and that He was with them and so even though the change they were going through was really difficult God was with them and helped them and in the end it was ok.

So when you go up to secondary school or move class in September there will be some big changes and they will be scary and we might find them difficult to start with but we need to remember that God is with us in all of them and that we can pray to God and He listens and will help us and that He puts people around who can help us with these changes like our family, friends and teachers.

Prayer: Introduce the prayer by saying that you’re going to pray and would like the to close their eyes and put they’re hands together so nothing around them is distracting. Explain that saying ‘amen’ at the end simply means ‘I agree’ and will make the prayer their own.

Dear God,

Thank you that You love us and that you are always with us no matter what is going on in our lives.

Thank you for the changes that happen in our lives and that they can give us new opportunities and new friends.

Please help us to cope with these changes by putting friends, family and teachers around us who we can talk to and help us to trust that You are always with us,

Amen