Good Morning Brown Clee!

Today is the start of the new term in Spring 2021, and what a strange start it has been!  Thank you to everyone for your understanding and support yesterday, whilst we got the keyworker child care and remote learning plans in place.  I met with all staff (on Microsoft Teams) yesterday, and we are all determined to ensure that we can provide the very best care and remote learning that we can, as well as keeping children in touch with each other….more about this later!

Yesterday I posted a recorded assembly in place of this one – which was what I had originally planned – but didn’t seem quite right for yesterday.  So in these strange times here is a rather strange picture – have a look and say what you can see…

This is the Roman God called Janus – what is unusual about him?  Yes he has 2 faces – he effectively has eyes in the back of his head so that he can see forwards and backwards at the same time.  I wonder why he would want to do that?

Janus was known as the god of doors and doorways, and it was thought that because he had two faces, he could see forwards and backwards at the same time. In fact, January – the first month of the year – is named after him. In January, we often take the time to look backwards at the previous year and forwards towards the future.

I am going to show you some pictures of doors – see if you recognise any of them….

…Gringott’s door from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

…10 Downing Street where the Prime Minister lives.

…the door of Bilbo Baggins’ House from the film The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Now I am going to show you some other non-famous doors – have a look and discuss what you think might be behind them…

Every door is different – and every new year is different too….as we enter January of 2021, we are opening a new door onto a new year, and we have no idea what will behind that door.

The new year is often regarded as an unopened door because we are uncertain about what we may find on the other side. We may have some idea of what lies behind a door, but we can’t be certain: behind the reinforced steel door of a safe, we might expect to find precious jewels or banknotes, but it may be empty; behind a secret door in the library of a stately home, we might expect to find a secret passage, but there may be just a dusty cupboard full of cobwebs; the huge, black, nailed door to a castle may open not to knights in armour, but to sad ruins and leaning towers.

The door to 2021 was quite a surprising one – and the door certainly slammed open!  And we know that for the next 6 weeks we are going to go through a challenging time, however 6 weeks is only 30 school days, which is only 8% of the year – so there is lots of light on the horizon to offer us hope of brighter times.

Take a quiet moment to reflect – think about what we experienced and learnt in 2020, and about what you hope might be behind the doorway into the year 2021…

 

Prayer of the Day

Dear God,
Thank you for everything that we learn from experiences in the past.
Thank you that we can now look forward in hope to the coming year.
Thank you for fresh starts.
Thank you for all the opportunities that this new year will bring.
Please help us to treat people well this year.
Please help us to do what is good, right and fair.
May we treat others with love.
May we encourage peace.
Amen.