Redbridge Assessment Centre

A compassionate Assembly from Ms Burgess this morning, who showed us a couple of videos that don’t normally come up as the topic of conversation. We watched a song by Ralph McTell ‘Streets of London’ (watch below), which sings about the homeless people of London. It made us think of people that are less fortunate and how differently they live their lives – ‘carrying her home in two carrier bags’ is a line from the lyrics. Ms Burgess asked us what the video meant to us and how it made us feel?

Ms Burgess then went on to show a clip of Hackney Winter Night Shelter for people less fortunate than ourselves and in particular homeless. The children were then asked why are we talking about homelessness? To which they replied, we are collecting for Harvest and our collection goes to Redbridge Assessment Centre (formerly known as Redbridge Night Shelter) to help those who have no home.

Raising awareness of problems such as homelessness encourages children to appreciate and be grateful for all they have in their lives. But also, to give back to their community and those who are in need.

‘A compassionate attitude helps you communicate more easily with your fellow human beings. As a result, you make more genuine friends and the atmosphere around you is more positive, which gives you greater inner strength. This inner strength helps you spontaneously concern yourself with others, instead of thinking only about yourself.’

– Dalai Lama