Sculptures, Dragons and Planets: Other Resources in April

World Autism Awareness Day

One in every 100 UK school children is autistic and, without the right support, school can be a confusing and difficult place.

World Autism Awareness Day is an internationally recognised day on 2nd April every year, which raises awareness about people throughout the world with autistic spectrum disorders. There are concentrated events during this week and month as part of ongoing awareness, acceptance, and understanding of autistic people.

We have created a special prayer video, with kind input from the National Autistic Society, to improve understanding of autism among pupils and how they can better support autistic people.

St George’s Day

Patriotism often gets a bad rap. In recent years, England flag – the Union Jack –  has, to some, become synonymous with football hooliganism or nationalistic pride verging on xenophobia. But national pride can be a beautiful thing: a community of diverse people sharing heritage, history and culture; celebrating what they have in common rather than what divides them.

We have seen this played out both beautifully and tragically, in the strength, resilience and determination of the Ukrainian people in the face of national threat.

So this St George’s Day (23rd April), why not find out about the patron saint of England, who was sentenced to death for refusing to deny his Christian faith. Although he never actually killed a real dragon, the dragon of legend is symbolic of Satan, who St George defeated through his unwavering faith in God. We have created a prayer resource which shares a little about St George, and inspires children to pray for strength to bravely stand up for what they believe in and overcome the ‘dragons’ in their own lives.

Earth Day

Every year on 22nd April, Earth Day aims to raise awareness about the environmental challenges that our planet is facing and to inspire people to do something about them.

We have created a prayer video to help children to celebrate God’s wonderful creation, learn about some of the main environmental concerns of the moment and consider how they can play a positive role in protecting our planet.

Feel free to let us know how you get on with the resources shared in this article – we love to hear from you. We’re always looking to expand our offering of ‘one-off’ resources that fall outside of the usual calendar of Gospel-inspired assemblies and daily prayers, so do let us know of anything you’d particularly like to see us produce.