What's included in the Shrove Tuesday Whole School Assembly PowerPoint resource and why is it useful?

Shrove Tuesday Whole School Assembly PowerPoint is a slideshow that explores the day before Lent begins, which many people call Pancake Day. The content includes 10 slides with teacher notes, covering what Shrove Tuesday is, what 'shrove' means, why we eat pancakes, the pancake race, Shrove Tuesday celebrations today, what we can learn from Shrove Tuesday, a reflection and follow-up activities. It links to RE learning about Christianity.

What Does "Shrove" Mean?

How the word comes from an old word meaning to think about your actions and say sorry, making the day a chance for a fresh start before Ash Wednesday, with questions such as "Why is it important to reflect and learn from our mistakes?"

Pancakes and Pancake Races

Why pancakes became a way to use up eggs, milk and sugar before Lent, and how the pancake race dates back over 500 years to a woman in Olney, Buckinghamshire, who raced to church while still frying a pancake, ending with "Which part of Shrove Tuesday do you enjoy most?"

Let's Learn More

Follow-up ideas, including writing instructions for the perfect pancake, creating a pancake topping menu and comparing Shrove Tuesday with another food-based festival.

How do our whole school assemblies work?

Our whole school assemblies are PowerPoint slideshows that follow a similar structure: an introduction, questions to get children thinking, the key points of the topic and reflection time. They're paced to suit a primary school assembly and work best on a whiteboard, projected out to the hall. You can use them:

• as a whole school assembly, from EYFS up to KS2
• as a class assembly
• as a teaching PowerPoint when you want to cover an event or topic in your own classroom

The majority of our assemblies include teacher notes and guidance to support delivery, and because they're pacey, you can adapt them to however long your assembly lasts.

Adapting the Assembly for Your School

Every assembly is editable, so you can add, remove or change slides to suit the needs of your school. We cover religious events, seasonal topics, values such as kindness, friendship and tolerance, science, history, PSHE, music, significant people and sporting events, so you can choose the assemblies that fit your school year.

Supporting Learning at Home

Families can carry the conversation on at home by asking children about their assembly: what they heard, how it made them feel and what they think about it.

You can explore more of our whole school assembly resources here.