Worship
Inclusive - Invitational - Inspirational
Themes for worship
Our collective worship reflects the achievements and learning of the children. We have a weekly celebration collective worship when staff award children with a certificate and badge for personal achievements, both academically and personally. We encourage the children to participate in collective worship by showing their work or sharing awards that have been received outside of school. Collective worship offers an opportunity to acknowledge and reward children for their achievements both in and out of schools. They play an important part in promoting the ethos of the school, which is that all children are valued and all achievements are recognised. St. Andrew’s and St. Mark’s School is a successful school and we celebrate the successes of all the children in collective worship.
We invite parents to specific collective worship, class collective worship and church services, where appropriate, and we encourage them to attend, as this promotes the community spirit of the school and is a practical demonstration of the way the home and the school work together to support the achievements of our children.
We hold a daily act of collective worship in our school which is a whole school activity. Worship is the heartbeat of our school.
We conduct collective worship in a dignified and respectful way. We tell children that collective worship time is a period of calm reflection. We regard it as a special time and expect children to behave in an appropriate way. We ask them to be quiet and thoughtful and to listen carefully to the teachings and participate fully in prayer and hymns. We create an appropriate atmosphere by using music and candles or sometimes other objects that act as a focal point for the attention of the children.
The headteacher or other members of staff normally conduct collective worship, sometimes visitors from organisations or local groups may be invited in to speak with the children. The local clergy or other representatives of local religious groups regularly lead collective worship. On some occasions the clergy from St Andrew’s and St Mark’s Parish will conduct a short Eucharist Worship with the school, during these services a blessing may be given or the sharing of peace.
We take the themes of our collective worship from the traditions of the Christian values, British Values and our PSHE programme as well as events of the Christian calendar. Sometimes the themes of our collective worship reflect and build on topics that we teach as part of the school curriculum. We plan our collective worship as part of a series of themes well in advance of the day they take place.
To reflect our diverse community, we also dedicate a collective worship each month to studying another faith and the links that can be made to our Christian values. This is led by pupils who share their faith with the school community.
There are other opportunities for reflection and worship throughout the school day.
RE teaching: RE is a core subject and we follow the diocesan scheme for learning about from religion
Check-ins: we conduct check-ins with every pupil twice everyday to see how the Christian values are being lived out in children's lives.
Prayer corners: each class has a prayer corner, which gives children the opportunity to explore different faiths and reflect.
Thinking deeply about our studies: each unit of study across the curriculum begins with a theological link that reminds us that we are studying an aspect of God's Earth and learning from Jesus' teaching.
Spacemakers: each pupil has an opportunity to reflect each day (as one pupil put it, 'We get to have peaceful to think about who we are').
Prayer: at the end of the school day, each class finishes with our school prayer.
Charlotte recorded her favourite hymn at home and this was shared in Collective Worship