Collective Worship

At Farway Church of England Primary School the children take part in a daily act of Christian Collective Worship during which we aim to encourage them to define their own beliefs and values. Parents can decide whether their children should take part in the daily act of collective worship in the school and those wishing to withdraw their children should inform the headteacher in writing. We have positive links with the local Church, its clergy and congregation. The school participates in major festivals in church with special services and a weekly worship which parents and the wider community are invited to.

We conduct acts of Collective Worship in a dignified and respectful way. We tell children that this time is a period of calm reflection. We regard it as a special time and expect children to behave in an appropriate way. As children come into Collective Worship calming music is played. We ask children to be quiet and thoughtful and to listen carefully to the teachings and participate fully in prayer and hymns. A candle is lit during these times which is placed on a focus table with other artefacts.

The acts of Collective Worship are based around promoting the teaching of Christian values linked to our School Vision - Love, Trust, Respect, Compassion and Resilience. We focus on one of these each half term with the first half term being a consolidation and reminder of the whole school Vision. We believe these values are clearly Christian in nature but are universal in their application. Collective Worship will also follow the traditions of the Christian faith and often reflect the festivals and events of the Christian calendar.

Throughout our Collective Worship a number of approaches are used:

  • A range of questions are used to help the whole school community reflect on each value;
  • Bible stories that are relevant to the theme;
  • Stories from world faiths, which illustrate the value;
  • The use of well known children's texts which support the value;
  • Interactive displays for children to follow up the discussions in Collective Worship.

There is a display in the school entrance hall which promotes the value currently being taught. The displays always have an interactive element. Children may be encouraged to write poems or draw pictures for the display and may be given opportunities to encourage prayer, e.g. by having outlines of doves to write the subject of a 'peace' prayer, or placing pebbles in a bowl of water once a prayer has been said.
 
A typical week of Collective Worship looks like:
 
Monday- Singing Worship 
Tuesday- Values or Pupil Led Worship
Wednesday- Spirituality 
Thursday- British Values or Celebrating what is happening in the World Calendar
Friday- Celebration Worship with parents 
 
We regularly have our school vicar in to lead one of these sessions, the children either go to the church or welcome the vicar into school.  
 
Open the Book

Every month the children enjoy members of the church community coming to tell them Bible Stories through the ‘Open the Book’ programme.