How it all works

3 Year Rolling Programme

OPEN THE BOOK has produced 3 years of material to enable teams to present weekly Bible stories in primary school assemblies or Acts of Collective Worship.

Year 1 gives the children an overview of the Bible - The Big Story - starting with the story of Creation at the beginning of September and finishing with Ascension at the end of July. These 33 stories are told in chronological order and therefore, need to be told within a school year.

The story of Christmas can be presented at the last OPEN THE BOOK assembly in December but the Easter stories will not be told until the latter half of the Summer term. Although this may seem strange to churchgoers it is important to keep the stories in correct sequence so that the children will understand the order of the life of Jesus.

All the stories for Year 1 come from The Lion Storyteller Bible written by Bob Hartman and published by Lion Hudson (ISBN 978-0-7459-4980-2).

Years 2 and 3 contain modules of themed stories, for example: "The First Christians"; "Children Play Their Part"; "Meals to remember". Each of these years include both Old and New Testament stories.

Some of the stories come from The Lion Storyteller Bible but the rest come from OPEN THE BOOK Bible Storybooks - one for each year. These stories were written especially for the programme by a small team of storywriters. These years also include modules for Christmas and Easter. There is a choice of either a single "all-in-one" story or 2 stories.

All the OPEN THE BOOK resource books are only available from our distributors - A Great Read. Click here to download an order form.

The Lion Storyteller Bible is also available from A Great Read, your local Christian bookshop or through the internet.

Special Note: Ideally, a team would start OPEN THE BOOK in September with the Year 1 material. However, many teams want to start part of the way through the school year. For these teams we recommend that they start with the Year 3 material because it is modular and offers flexible choice. When September next comes around they can start Year 1 thus fitting in to the 3 year rolling programme. This makes sure that no children leave the school without knowing the end of the Big Story and hopefully prevents confusion!

OPEN THE BOOK is designed for weekly worship sessions but for those teams unable to go into school this often, please get in touch with the National Coordinator to talk over other options. Teams who go into the school fortnightly will take two years to complete each year's material.

For all queries, please call OPEN THE BOOK. Click here to contact us.