Collective Worship
Collective worship is often referred to as the beating heart of a church school as it offers a wonderful opportunity for all members of the community to meet together, explore issues together, think through questions together, and respond to others and, for some, to God. At Upton St Leonards C of E Primary School, this is no different.
We are committed to offering high quality collective worship, recognising and valuing collective worship as central to fostering a sense of 'togetherness' and to expressing the school’s Christian vision -
Building foundations for a love of life, love of learning and love of one another.
Collective worship in our school is inclusive, invitational and inspiring and intentionally ensures that Collective Worship enables pupils and adults to flourish spiritually (SIAMS 2023).
Inclusive
We aim to offer children the opportunity, without compulsion, to discuss and reflect on their own spirituality.
Invitational
We offer everyone the opportunity to engage in collective worship, whilst allowing the freedom for those of other faiths and none to be present with integrity.
Inspirational
We aim to ensure that worship is creative and inspires children, through music, liturgy, stories and reflection time.
We aim to develop children’s appreciation of the variety of traditions, globally, in the Anglican/Methodist Church
Individual Worship Design
At the start of every Worship, we invite the whole community to worship with us through the words:
We have gathered in the name of 'God the father, God the son and God the holy spirit, to worship together and to think about ( ). This is the day that the lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Throughout the worship, we use the template of 'windows, mirrors and doors' to encourage reflection: a mirror to help children see themselves; a door to help them open up to others and a window to help them find a place in the world.
We wholeheartedly endorse this philosophy and support children in understanding their relationships with themselves, each other and the world. Everyday, we join together through Collective Worship to share these Christian values with our children to help them find their place in the world.
We end each worship with a dismissal incorporating our Christian vision and four core values
Go in peace and with respect
We go in peace and with respect
Go joy and truthfulness
We go in joy and truthfulness
Go with perseverance and love
We go with perseverance and love
Lord, help us to work together to achieve our vision....
Building foundations for a love of life, a love of learning and a love of one another.
Worship Rota
We have a clear Worship rota that ensures even coverage of our vision, core values and termly value, as well as collaboration with the local community. Please see an example below:
Celebrating Achievement
Each Friday, children’s achievements are celebrated and parents are encouraged to share in this experience by coming along to a Friday Celebration Assembly.
The celebration assembly recognises all children not just those who achieve academic success. Children are nominated by their teachers and the headteachers awards link to our Christian values. At some point in their time at Upton St Leonards every child will sit on the sofa and have their success celebrated. It's about children seeing success and this motivates them to model our values. Every child at Upton St Leonards should have their time to shine and their efforts celebrated by the school community.
Open the Book
We are very lucky that our local church supports us through Open the Book assemblies. This national programme offers primary school children an opportunity to hear key Bible stories told by a team of Christians from local churches, who present the stories during assemblies or acts of collective worship. You can find out more about the programme, developed by the Bible Society, here: Open the Book | Sharing Bible stories in primary schools – Bible Society
If you would like further information about Collective Worship, please see our
Collective Worship PolicyIf you have any specific questions around collective worship, please contact our RE and Collective Worship Lead, Kate Davies.