Caring for Others Today

This book is based on the teachings of Jesus and connects with modern-day citizenship. The material is primarily for KS2 (7-11 year olds) for use in schools, but it is also ideal for use in Sunday schools and other church-based groups.

All of the charities featured in the book are open to and actively caring for those in need - regardless of race or religion.

Each chapter includes:
- suggested PSHE and Citizenship links
- Bible link with key passages in full
- learning-from-the-Bible activities
- stories about what others have done
- charity links, with contact details and stories from the charity's work
- reflection and discussion
- practical links to help children actively be involved in caring for others.

Charities featured in the book are Barnardo's, BRF, CAFOD, Childline, Christian Aid, Compassion, The Donkey Sanctuary, Epilepsy Action, Hearing Dogs for Deaf People, The Leprosy Mission, NDCS, Oxfam, RNIB, RNID, RSPB, RSPCA, The Salvation Army, Samaritans, Sight Savers International, St John Ambulance and Tearfund.

Sylvia Green is a popular and regular visitor to local primary schools where she tells stories, runs creative writing workshops and gives talks to children on writing and publishing. She is a published children's author, having just completed her sixth Christmas animal and first Easter animal story for Scholastic Children's Books. She has also contributed children's stories to various magazines and newspapers and given talks, readings and workshops in her local library. Her first book for BRF, Stories to Teach about God, was published in February 2004.

Reviewed by RE Today - Spring 2008

This book has come from Sylvia's Green's many years of work in primary schools as a regular Christian visitor. It has 13 chapters, with each one giving a Biblical story about Jesus helping someone practically. Each chapter gives an example of one or two people who have tried to show the same compassion as Jesus in situations they encountered in their lives, such as Louis Braille, Dr Barnardo, Chad Varah, Florence Nightingale, William and Catherine Booth, Elizabeth Fry, John Wycliffe and William Tyndale. There are others I had not heard of before, but I enjoyed reading a short summary of their lives and the way in which they tried to put faith into action.

Each chapter also explains the work of one or two charities that work in a similar area, or that started from the work of this individual (22 are covered in the whole book). The charities are many and varied, but the author gives a short succinct overview of how they started and what they do today. This would give teachers something to read in an assembly, as much as it would provide the text for able KS2 pupils to work with in a lesson.

Helpfully, at the start of each chapter there are all the links showing how this information could address sections in the PSHE, Citizenship, ICT, History and Geography curriculum as well as RE. At the end of each chapter there are details about how to find out more, suggestions for discussion work, and practical ideas of how pupils can support the work of these different charities.

This book is a brilliantly useable mini encyclopaedia of short stories about people of faith and the work of charities. The information flows out from a Bible story and seeks to give practical suggestions to help pupils in Key Stage 2 to get involved in helping others. It gives everything a teacher might need in background knowledge to explore the relationship between Christian belief and action.

Reviewed by Claire Clinton.

From: Surrey Comet - 31 October 2007
Sylvia Green's new books, Caring for Others Today, is her 13th title, and her first non-fiction work. It explores how the life and teachings of Jesus are still startlingly relevant to everyone, of all faiths or no faith at all, and is key to the work of 22 leading charities.

Sylvia, whose busy life includes frequent stints of caring for her two grandchildren, had to do a year's intensive research for the book, which is aimed at churches, schools and citizenship classes. She tells how each of the featured charities began and what it does today, linking its work to examples set by Jesus. She also tells readers how to get further information on each, and how best to help.

For example, the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) was founded in 1868 by Thomas Rhodes-Armitage, a Victorian surgeon who was himself going blind. Its work, together with that of Sight Savers International, founded by Sir John Wilson in1950, are linked to the story in Matthew's Gospel of Jesus healing the blind.

Oxfam and Christian Aid are coupled with the New Testament story of Jesus feeding the 5000, while the childcare section cites Christ's blessing of little children in St Mark's Gospel and the work of Barnado's and Childline. Other charities covered include Epilepsy Action, the Leprosy Mission, St John Ambulance, the RSPCA and the Salvation Army.

It's a surprisingly engrossing read that really makes one think. And it has the added bonus of giving cross-curricular links to such subjects as History, Geography, Science and English.

From: RE News - Summer 2007

This is an excellent resource for key stage 2 teachers seeking to link Christian faith with Christian practice as well as encouraging pupils to empathise with others and also care, in their own way, for others.

In total 22 charities are introduced within thirteen topics, which include caring for blind and visually impaired people, children, the unwell, those hungry and in need, and God's creation. Each topic is structured around a biblical passage and learning from the Bible, a story about the work of a key individual, stories about key charities (including their history and work today), suggestions for discussion and reflection and practical ways for people to get involved. The information concerning the various charities is comprehensive, but for those who require more information, further sources are provided.

This is a well-priced and complete resource which meets a need for this age group.

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