Collective Worship
We hold daily acts of Collective Worship, mostly as a whole school but also within our classes. All within school are invited to take time to worship. Our themes for Collective Worship follow our school values and link directly to passages from the Bible, showing how we can live out God's word in our daily lives. We also reflect on our school's namesake of The Holy Trinity through God the Father's Word in the Bible, the life and teachings of God the Son (represented physically by a cross) and God the Spirit (represented physically by our candle) within us, helping us to live out God's love to all.
Our Collective Worship planning themes run on a 3 year cycle:
- The ‘Big Picture’ of the Bible
- The Fruit of the Spirit
- Our school values* and our Play and Learning groups’ leaders (who are named after British Christians who showed courageous advocacy: Florence Nightingale, Dr Barnardo, William Booth, Mary Booth and William Tyndale.)
* During the 2 years where our school values are not the explicit focus, our values are always referenced, linked to the Bible story or passage discussed.
Important dates in the calendar and significant events are also focused on and include key dates from the Global Neighbours' global citizen calendar.
On Wednesdays members from local churches lead our Collective Worship using the 'Open the Book' scheme to explore further the big picture of the Bible reflecting the school’s Collective Worship plans for that week and the school value.
On Thursdays, we use the resource 'Picture News’ to both respond to current affairs or sudden events and to reflect on injustice. We also use it to further explore our school values, in particular the importance of considering, valuing and treating all people with dignity and respect. An explanation with an opportunity to follow up is sent home, creating an additional dialogue between home and school.
On Fridays, our Collective Worship reviews our theme for the week. We also celebrate and thank God for all the good things that have happened throughout our week.
Our time begins with our opening prayer, originally written by the children, which the Special Helper from Class 2 or Class 1 is invited to lead:
Dear God, Thank you for this special time together with our friends. Please help us to learn more about you. Amen
The leader of the Collective Worship lights our candle saying 'God is here' and all respond with 'His Spirit is with us'.
The Bible passage or message is delivered as interactively as possible in order to support understanding, create memories and a desire to reflect on the message given. Reflection is valued as an important part of our Collective Worship and usually invites the pupils and staff to think about how they can live out the value that has been discussed.
We finish our time of Collective Worship with prayers, which are often led by the children, and then our Messy Grace.
Half termly our ‘Open the Book’ Collective Worship is held at Holy Trinity Church with their home group ‘Connections’ and, termly the children lead a Collective Worship for them. This was praised in our SIAMS inspection: ‘Collective worship is the heartbeat of the school with the Christian vision and distinctiveness being enhanced and embedded there … The school extends its excellent work beyond its boundaries. Pupils are having a significant impact in the Connections initiative, to encourage local people to come together. The pupils say that they thoroughly enjoy going and having worship together every term.’