Aims

Our aim is to provide a setting and context where children are given the opportunity to experience worship and an understanding of the Christian faith.

                                                                      

     Collective worship gives the whole school community the opportunity to:

• Engage in an act of community.
• Express praise and thanksgiving to God.
• Reflect on the character of God and on the teachings of Christ through Biblical texts.
• Affirm Christian values and attitudes.
• Celebrate special times in the Christian calendar.
• Experience and respond to Anglican traditions and practices.
• Explore the big questions of life and respond to national events.
• Foster respect and deepen spiritual awareness.
• Be still and reflect.

We will work towards including the following elements;

• Prayer, silent, spoken, formal informal.
• Praise, hymns, songs, poetry, drama, dance, mime.
• Bible stories, traditional and modern, from different traditions.
• Tales of the Saints
• Sharing of personal experiences, thoughts and ideas.
• Sadness and joy.
• Quiet time for reflection, silence, activity and excitement.
• Music for listening and responding to.
• Artefacts, special and natural objects.

Through these, children will become more aware and deepen their understanding of the Christian Year.

They will develop a strong sense of sharing, belonging and celebrating together.

Regular visitors

Clergy from St Oswald’s Church regularly lead worship and leaders from the other Christian Churches in the town are welcome to take part in the worship.

Annual charity fund raising occurs where we support charities that are close to our hearts; these are chosen by the School Council

The Links to the church

We attend St Oswald’s church for special acts of worship; Christingle/Harvest/Easter, etc…

The church and churchyard is a very special place. We get to know it through other areas of the curriculum; (i.e.) history/Geography/science, as well as religious education.

We hold  services in church which are led by pupils from the school and the Collective worship Crew.

Times

Collective Worship is held daily for 15 minutes in the school hall. We have weekly rewards assemblies which celebrate children’s achievements throughout the week as well as bi-weekly whole school worship through singing.

All children attend the assemblies apart from those who are withdrawn by parents due to their own religious beliefs. Parents have a right to withdraw their children from acts of worship.

All teaching staff attend and take part in collective worship and all staff agree to lead an act of worship one day a week. The various individual skills of the teachers (e.g.) story telling, music drama, etc.. are reflected in the worship, giving a rich variety of approaches.

Delivery

The head teacher is responsible for ensuring that each pupil takes part in an act of collective worship every day.

A half termly programme of themes for collective worship is devised to ensure variety and to prevent repetition. However, the programme is very flexible and may be changed to address situations as they arise. An example of this can be found in school and on the school website.

Children are encouraged to take part, but we remain aware of the differences of belief within the school e.g. children would be asked to listen to a prayer and not necessarily be expected to “pray” it. This also applies to the adults at an assembly.

The Collective Worship Team take part in planning and delivering collective worship. This can be at important times of the year (i.e.) Harvest, Easter and Christmas. They can also help plan the acts of worship linked to the Bible Stories. They have the choice of reading prayers this involves them in the worship; as well as the greeting at the beginning of the worship.

The children are aware of the Holy Trinity through the worship and use many artefacts to support the delivery of Collective worship