We started running Open the Book Assemblies in the benefice back in 2012. We would go into each of the village schools once a month to act out a short story from the Bible; this was followed by a time to reflect on a key message and the children (and adults!) then have the opportunity to join in with the prayer at the end.

Although the team has changed over the years, we continued to visit the schools regularly until the lockdown last year. Sadly, since then, we have not been able to go into the buildings but we have recorded a couple of sessions for the schools to share, as they wished. We are eager to go back into schools as soon as it is safe to do so.

At first it was a little daunting going in to ‘perform’ but the children love seeing us and always make us feel very welcome: a number of us have been greeted in supermarkets and parks as we go about our daily lives with children enthusiastically waving and shouting “It’s the Open the Book lady”! Or by them chanting the rap we use at the start of each story.

Stories are all pre-scripted and we read them, rather than learning lines (this ensures consistency of message across all schools throughout the country) and we use simple props and costumes to help bring the stories to life. We meet one Monday morning a month to allocate parts and talk through how we will act out the story and then we go into three schools to ‘perform’. In total, the commitment is possibly 4 hours a month (and you don’t need to be available every month). If you would like to join the team, or support us by making props and costumes, please do get in touch.