Collective Worship 

At St John’s, the daily act of collective worship is viewed as an integral and important part of school life; it gives us the opportunity to celebrate, as well as encouraging our pupils to think about their place in the world, through spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) development.  We want to be the centre of our community. We will not shy away from our responsibilities in enabling children to think deeply about themselves, the world in which they live and the place that faith has in our society.  As a Church of England Primary School our collective worship will be in accordance with the principles and practices of the Anglican Church.  The daily act of collective worship has a special status and is distinct from Religious Education (RE). The worship and prayer life of the school is not limited to the legally required daily acts of worship. Prayers are said throughout the day and opportunities for reflection are built into our daily routines.

Collective Worship will:

• Provide children with the opportunity to participate through the example of singing, prayer, reading, drama, reflection etc.
• Have a clear message
• Include the  worship elements of gathering, engaging, responding and sending
• Will reflect the Anglican tradition
• Will take into account the levels of development of children
• Will conform to Liverpool Diocesan policy

INCLUSIVE, INVITATIONAL AND INSPIRING

Inclusive: Worship is collective in that it involves meeting, exploring, questioning, and responding to others and, for some, to God. In the Church school children, their families and other adults can expect to encounter worship that is inclusive of, and fully accessible to all.   Children and staff may come from homes of different faith backgrounds as well as of no faith background. Moreover, many children will naturally be at different stages of their spiritual journey during their time in school. Children will be given the opportunity to think and ask questions. There will be space to consent, and dissent: to participate and to stand back; and to consider. It is an expectation that care will be taken to ensure that the language used by those facilitating worship avoids assuming faith in all those participating, listening and watching.

Invitational: Parents, children and adults can expect to encounter worship that is consistently invitational. There should be no compulsion to ‘do anything’. Rather, worship should provide the opportunity to engage whilst allowing the freedom of those of different faiths and those who profess no religious faith to be present and to engage with integrity.

Children and adults should always only be invited to pray if they wish to do so and should be invited to pray in their own way. Prayer will be accompanied by the option to reflect.

Inspiring: Children and adults can expect the worship they encounter in a Church school to be inspirational. Worship should be formational and transformational: it should enable children and adults to ask big questions about who we are and why we do what we do. It should motivate children and adults into action, into thinking differently, and into reflecting on their and the wider community’s behaviour and actions. As a result of inspirational collective worship, they should be inspired to become courageous advocates of causes. It should encourage them to think searchingly about their faith, beliefs and/or philosophical convictions.

Please click the link below for our Collective Worship Policy: 

Easter Worship

We had our Easter Worship all about the cross. Every class had made a different style of cross during the past week and learned a little bit about its history. Each class came one by one and lay down their colourful crosses onto a big, dark cross to symbolise how the sadness of Good Friday turned into joy on Easter Sunday!

Reception made Traditional Crosses
Year 1 made Bangladeshi Crosses

Year 2 made Salvadorean Crosses

Year 3 made Celtic Crosses

Year 4 made Irish Crosses

Year 5 made Latin American Crosses

Year 6 made Palm Crosses

PATTERN OF WORSHIP 

WORSHIP TABLE

• Runner or cloth to reflect the colour of the season of the church year
• Bible open at the Bible verses or story of the day
• An artefact or object suggesting the theme or content of the worship

Anglican responses are said at the beginning and end of worship with Year 6 children taking the lead. Candles are lit in the name of the Trinity.

WELCOME 

When everyone in the school is gathered or the class is quietly ready for worship, 3 candles are lit to signal the start of worship. 

LEARNING 

The learning element is when the Bible text is ‘opened up’ using a particular creative medium:

The work of a visual artist, story teller, poet, photographer, film maker, scriptwriter could be used to express the essence the essence of the text in a variety of creative ways.

REFLECTING

Provides an opportunity for every one to take time to consider how what they have heard, seen or felt has resonated with them or challenged them, for example, a few open questions are offered to support the process or a guided visualisation or a mindful reflection

RESPONDING

The ‘sending’ part of worship. It provides an opportunity to consider how those present might want to respond to what they have experienced  - often a prayer  can be used to draw together the themes in worship.

During Worship time use a coloured cloth, appropriate to the season of the church year. It is used to create the sacred space for worship. 

The church calendar is made up of seasons that follow the life of Jesus. The church year begins in late November or early December with Advent, a time of preparation for Jesus’ birth.

In Christian churches one of four colours – purple, green, gold (or white) and red – referred to as ‘liturgical colours’, are used for altar linen, clergy robes and various hangings. The colour reflects the season, so that for instance in Advent purple is used, a colour of royalty because we are preparing to welcome the coming of a king. Purple is used again in Lent because it also symbolises suffering.

At Christmas and Easter the colour changes to white or gold, both bright optimistic colours for festivals, times for joy and celebration. Between the festivals green cloths symbolise all living things, renewal and promise of new life. And finally, red is the colour of fire, used in churches to celebrate Pentecost and saints’ days.