Collective Worship
Collective worship is a central part of the school day for both children and staff. It is an opportunity for us to gather together to worship God, to consider spiritual and moral issues and to explore our own beliefs. The children take active participation through class led worship, leading in prayer, acting, singing and supporting worship. Our worship has a distinctively Christian theme and we develop a theme across the term with the children. We select themes based on the needs of our school and members of our community.
Collective worship is the heartbeat of our school and therefore it is a very special time of the day. The week starts with collective worship on a Monday afternoon and ends with collective worship on a Friday afternoon.
We use the Picture News resource during our Monday worship. The resource is designed to expose the pupils to current affairs, discover their interests and bring the world closer to their everyday lives.
It teaches our children that:
- If they want to make a difference, they have to have the confidence to speak out.
- They must develop resilience. If at first, they do not succeed, develop ideas further, do not give up!
- Expose children to a range of current issues including political, religious, cultural, environmental, social, moral, spiritual.
- Make British Values relevant and meaningful and develop links between personal, school and community values.
- Allow children to demonstrate respect and tolerance. Children often can explain how they should behave or what they should say but what better way to teach respect than if they are discussing something they actually care about?
Picture News is then followed up in Thursday’s Class Worship where it is linked to the British values and Biblical values.
Wednesdays worship is usually led by our local Vicar and follows themes around our values or the church calendar.
During celebration worship on Friday afternoons we ensure the achievements of the children are celebrated. A child from each class receives a certificate for showing one or more of our values: kindness, curiosity and readiness. We also celebrate attendance with our class attendance challenge. Feedback on the Picture News question is given by a Year 6 representative and added to the Picture News display for the school to read.
Children talk very positively about collective worship and enjoy this special time of day when we meet as a big school family. Collective worship is regularly monitored by staff, governors and children.
To mark the special times in the Christian calendar, the children take part in celebration services to celebrate harvest, to commemorate Remembrance, through carols, Ash Wednesday, Mother’s Day, the Easter celebration service and the leavers' service. The children take an active part in the services and the local church lead and support in these celebrations.
Our Collective Worship is regularly enhanced by a wide range of visitors but some of our regulars include Steve Scrivener from Coley Baptist Church which is adjacent to the school and Javeed the Imam at the Oxford Road Mosque. We also invite specific visitors into talk about particular topics such as Pilgrimage. We also make good use of our multicultural and multi-faith school community to enrich our collective worship.
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Monday |
Whole school Picture News worship at 2.40pm led by Mr Parting or a senior leader |
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Tuesday |
Whole school praise and worship led by our music leader at 2.30pm |
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Wednesday |
Whole school worship led by the vicar at 2.40pm |
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Thursday |
Class Worship – a time to reflect on this weeks Picture News |
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Friday |
Whole school celebration worship at 2.30pm |