Worship

At SS Simon and Jude CE Primary School we are committed to offering high quality collective worship. We recognise and value collective worship as central to fostering a sense of community and to expressing our school vision and values.

As a Church of England Primary School, we see our Collective Worship as a central part of school life. It is the heartbeat of our school, whereby pupils and adults can encounter faith by engaging in conversations about God, both as individuals and together, through meaningful contributions from the whole school community.

Collective Worship in SS Simon and Jude CE Primary School will do the following:

• Explore the school’s vision and values (12 Christian values and 8 Personal Learning Goals) In doing so, it will reflect on values such as compassion, forgiveness, peace, justice, collaborator, resilient and adaptable to develop character and contribute to academic progress.
• Help pupils and adults to appreciate the relevance of faith in today’s world by encountering the teachings of Jesus and the Bible.
• Offer the opportunity to all pupils and adults to grow spiritually through experiences of prayer, worship and reflection.
• Enable all members of the whole school community to appreciate that Christians worship in different ways, for example using music, silence, story, prayer, reflection as well as through the varied liturgical and other traditions of Anglican worship.
• Enable pupils to develop skills through engaging in the planning, leading and evaluation of collective worship in ways that lead to improving practice.

Collective Worship Provision

Worship allows the whole school community to step away from their daily lives in education, to create a space for an encounter with faith in God. The time set aside in the school day provides staff and pupils with the opportunity to gather and support one another as a community. Worship will follow a recognisable structure that will help focus worship on one idea. See appendices.

As a Church of England school the content of our worship is organised to:

• Cover each of our school values.
• Cover all the major Christian festivals including Harvest, Christmas, Easter and Pentecost.
• Be rooted in Bible teaching
• Use the school prayer, Lord’s prayer and other prayers written by pupils and led by the worship group
• Follow an order of service
• Be presented using a variety of styles and to include music, story, drama, enthusiastic singing, reflection and reverence in prayer time.

Special Services and Visitors

We value our links with the staff and congregation of The Seven Saints. The Seven Saints team regularly lead worship on a rota and always attend our services in the church. Where possible we also invite other members of the community in to lead worship. All visitors are welcome to attend our Collective Worship.