Just A Single Candle  by Jenny Schrag - 7 to 13 yrs - KS2, KS3  (3m 08s)
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Theme  -  Each person makes a difference 
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Story  -  by John Kenward  (approx 9 mins)

Extract:
It was half term. Rory was excited, but he was also nervous. He stood on the pavement outside their new house, staring at the back of the huge removal lorry. He watched intensely as the removal men offloaded the contents of their old house and carried them into the new one. All Rory was interested in was his skate board. Had it been packed? Was it still in one piece?

‘Have you seen it yet?’  he kept asking the men.  ‘We’ll tell you as soon as we come to it,’  they kept saying.  Finally they reached the packing cases at the front of the lorry.  One of them triumphantly appeared at the back holding Rory’s prize possession.
‘There you go son!’  he said. ‘Don’t go breaking your neck.’ 
‘Thanks,’  replied Rory.  ‘Hey, Mum! Dad!  Can I go out on my skateboard?’ 
‘Ok,’  grunted his dad, bent over a packing case, legs knee high in newspaper.
‘But don’t go onto the main road!’ called his mum.

Rory’s new house was in an estate with lots of cul-de-sacs, and no through traffic, so it was perfect for whizzing up and down on the pavements.  He hoped he’d meet some fellow skate boarders, preferably children his own age.  He zoomed off, excited to be skating in new territory. 

As he rounded a bend, three boys came racing out of an alleyway ahead of him. They turned into the road, not noticing an old lady with a walking stick, struggling to carry her shopping bag.  The boys didn’t see the old lady fall as they knocked the stick from her grasp while rushing past her, disappearing further up the road without even glancing back...

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Song  -  by Jenny Schrag 

An anthemic song about peace, tolerance, and living the right way, and the responsibility that each one of us has to make a difference. The excellent lyrics make the song ideal for assembly, but the optional harmony parts and key change also make this a very uplifting song for choir performance. (Sample on the audio player above.)

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Reflection Points - samples

1.  What do you think made Rory help Betty when she was knocked over?  

2.  The story is called Just A Single Candle.  How did Rory seem like a candle in Betty’s life?  

3.  If Rory came to our school, why do you think he might make a good friend?

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This assembly is from 'Assemblies Alive KS2'. There is a parallel assembly for KS1 'How Can I Make A Difference' with the same theme in 'Assemblies Alive KS1'.