Collective Worship

Collective Worship

Worship in our school is not simply a statutory duty. The daily Christian act of collective worship is the heartbeat of our school, central to our ethos and is supported by all staff and governors. It makes an important contribution to the overall spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of the whole school community.

Principles of collective worship

• Develop a deeper understanding of themselves, their feelings and experiences.
• Appreciate the feelings and needs of others, developing a sense of community in our school and as part of a wider community.
• Become aware of, and celebrate what has meaning, value and purpose for them, for our school and for the wider community.
• To celebrate difference and diversity.
• To celebrate achievements and special occasions.
• To feel a sense of awe and wonder of the world about them and a sense of their place within it.

Each adult and pupil will experience worship that is truly welcoming, inclusive and exemplifying the principles of Christian hospitality (see Church of England’s Collective Worship Guidance).

Collective worship therefore will be:

• Inclusive – Our acts of worship recognise that pupils and staff come from homes of different faith backgrounds as well as no faith backgrounds, so it will be inclusive of, and fully accessible to all. Care will be taken to ensure that language used by those facilitating worship avoids assuming faith of those participating, listening or watching.
• Invitational – In our acts of worship, there is no compulsion to ‘do anything’. Rather, worship will provide the opportunity to engage whilst allowing the freedom of those of different faiths and those who profess no religious faith to be present and to engage with integrity. Pupils and adults will only be invited to pray and sing if they wish to do so.
• Inspiring – By asking and discussing big questions about who we are and what we do in worship we hope to motivate pupils and adults into action. There will be opportunities to think, reflect and ponder on their and the wider community’s behaviour and actions.

Implementation

In addition to the above, we seek to provide acts of Collective Worship that reflect the faith and practice of the Church of England. Therefore:

We use the Bible as a source book for inspiration and learning and make pupils familiar with the Lord’s Prayer, psalms and other verses of scripture. We also introduce them to a variety of well- known prayers – many of which express the central beliefs of Christians throughout the ages.

We use aspects of Anglican liturgy to create a framework for worship Welcome, engage, respond, Blessing. We observe the cycle of the Anglican year including celebrations of the major Christian festivals.

At Bentley St Paul’s, we aim to provide a worship space which is attractive and well prepared with appropriate thought having been given to colour, space, seating, ambience and music.

We foster links with St Paul’s Church, involving the Reverend Julie in leading collective worship and providing coherence between worship in church and school and visit 7 times per year as part of the Christian calendar.

We work closely with the Brentwood Christian Workers Trust who lead Collective Worship each half term and attend to lead additional workshops across the school for specific Christian Festivals.

We recognise that different members of our school community spiritually reflect in different ways. Music, story, silence, prayer, drama and other approaches are incorporated within a varied collective worship offer.

Collective Worship Liturgy

Organisation

The daily act of Collective Worship takes place daily, sometimes this is in conjunction with an assembly.

The Heads of School open the Worship with a greeting and response:

Worship concludes with an invitational reflection and prayer and on most occasions a hymn.

At the end of Worship, the Adult begins and the children join in with:

Father as we go,

Jesus as we go,

Spirit as we go,

Bless us all as we go.

Growing Together in Faith, Love and Trust we will succeed.

Collective Worship is timetabled and follows a weekly pattern of Worship.

Each half Term Worship follows one of the School Values.  Each value is explored through different stories from the Bible or stories that explore the Value in greater depth.  Each week there is a running theme for the stories and children explore different ways Christians understand and live by the value. 

Our Values:

Friendship

Forgiveness

Trust

Peace

Wisdom

Responsibility

Respect

Tuesday Worship is led by ‘mini-team’.  A small team of children lead by our RE and Worship Ministers.  They use the Open the Book resources to celebrate stories from the Bible. 

The Vicar leads the school once a fortnight in an act of Worship in the school hall following the themes on the half termly timetable.

The fortnightly ‘Songs of Praise’ includes a time of reflection and prayer as well as a focus on the words of each hymn as it is introduced.

We have half termly visits from the Brentwood Christian Workers Trust who lead Worship.

To create an appropriate atmosphere for our collective Worship, a selected piece of music is played as the children assemble and leave.

At the front of the Worship area there is a ‘Worship table’ covered with a coloured cloth to match the liturgical colours of the seasons of the Church Year.  A wreath has coloured ribbons added to reflect the time of the Liturgical Calendar. On the table are placed a candle, a Bible and a cross to act as a stimulus and focus for the day’s Worship (if applicable.)

Each classroom also has its own Worship area for children and adults alike.

Services at St Paul's Church Bentley Common

Church Services are held at St Paul’s Church seven times a year.  These are led by both the children and the Vicar.

When classes lead the Service they prepare all aspects including readings, hymns and prayers.  When the Service includes Eucharist the class leads the service and the Vicar leads the central liturgical celebration and the children are involved in the offertory and prayers. 

The service on Ash Wednesday is led by the Vicar.  The children have the opportunity to receive ‘ashes’ and also are involved in the offertory, readings and prayers. 

When a class leads a service the parents of children in that class are invited to join us in Worship at the Church.

We hold a Christingle Service in the School hall where the children make their own Christingle and we join together to celebrate.  Year 6 Minister and Heads of school lead this with the Vicar. 

Pupil Participation

Pupils have an opportunity to participate in our Worship in the following ways:

• To help the head lead Worship through Mini-team, reading and re-enacting bible stories, asking questions and sharing prayers.
• Prayer is central to our acts of Worship. It is introduced with a form of words that invites but does not coerce pupils to participate. Our prayers are addressed to Jesus and ‘God’ reflecting the traditions and practices of the Church of England. We hope that pupils who prefer not to pray will use these moments to reflect on the important messages shared in our Worship.
• Pupils take an active part in Worship. For example: question and answer, dressing up, holding up artefacts, finding mystery items in bags/boxes, talk partners, identifying themes in visual images, reading prayers, Bible reading, singing.
• To help plan and participate in their own class led Worship once a year.
• To write a prayer for their class prayer book based on a theme.
• Year 6 pupils have responsibility for the music, displaying computer images and words on the screen as well as preparing the hall for Worship.
• Interactive participation at the invitation of the Worship leader or visitor (coming to help at the front is very popular).
• To provide a reflection on the weekly Worship as part of their spiritual development. The RE and Worship Ministers have this responsibility. They then write these reflections to hang on the Prayer Tree or display on the Reflection board.