The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, will deliver a message of hope to school pupils across the country in the first assembly at Oak National Academy. The Archbishops address will be streamed through TES from 10am on Thursday 30 April. It will then remain available on the Oak National Academy website. Thursdays event is expected to be the biggest school assembly ever held in the UK.
In addition to the assemblies, the Church of England is partnering with Oak National Academy to provide separate weekly collective worship sessions led by schools, which will be accessible to those of all faiths and none. This will be part of the Church of Englands forthcoming #FaithAtHome programme.
Oak National Academy was built at great speed during the coronavirus lockdown, to help teachers support their pupils. It provides an online bank of quality-assured, curriculum-mapped videoed lessons and resources, which aim help to support remote teaching. Teachers can use the resources to complement their own lesson planning and teaching until schools fully re-open. Every lesson is free to use
Since its launch last week the online classroom has seen over two million lessons accessed.
In his pre-recorded address, the Archbishop will say:
I suspect this year 2020 will stick in the mind for many reasons and there are lots of things that you will be going through.
What do we do with that? For Christians, its all summed up in a word hope… hope means the certain expectation of something you dont have yet but you will have in the future because its been promised by God."
The Archbishop also draws on the words of Nelson Mandela, as well as his own experience of a visit to Sudan where he met and prayed with a young Christian refugee.
Assemblies at Oak National Academy will be held in partnership with TES and be delivered by a range of well-known faces. They will focus on topics like hope and resilience, as well as practical advice and support. They will act as a moment for the countrys pupils to come together and provide reassurance during this uncertain time.