Latymer All Saints CE Primary School

Collective Worship Policy

Date: January 2014 Review Date: January 2016

Latymer All Saints Primary School regularly holds school and celebration assemblies and both parents/carers and all members of the community are encouraged to come and celebrate along with the children.

Special festival assemblies, such as Harvest, Christmas and Easter are also held at All Saints Church, where many members of the wider community, often senior citizens are encouraged to attend. We now have extended our church services to include three clergy-led services at the beginning of the year, SP1 and SU1 the latter being a Eucharist Service for all children and those who are confirm will receive Communion.

Occasionally there assemblies for special reasons (e.g. we have held memorials for the death of a member of staff, or leaving celebrations)

We Aim to:-

·  Encourage children to recognise and express the feelings and senses from which worship naturally arises. In particular, the senses of beauty, wonder, empathy, smallness, grandness, sadness, loss, peace, thoughtfulness, stillness and pride.

·  Provide a wide variety of approaches towards Christian worship, using music, The Bible, other literature and visual materials to illustrate themes. Thus taking into account the fact that we are all different and all have different needs and preferred ways of learning and worshipping.

·  Involve as many staff as possible as we believe that children need to be given as broad an experience of different types of worship as possible.

·  Encourage all members of our school community to attend.

·  Provide an agreed, flexible programme for collective worship on a half termly basis, in conjunction with the SEAL (Social Emotional Aspects of Learning) program.

·  Encourage children to take part in every possible way.

·  Provide training and support for all staff and encourage staff to observe and discuss the different approaches given to worship.

·  Involve the ministers from our local church on a weekly basis.

·  Include speakers from the wider community.

·  Teach, from the SEAL program, a wide variety of sensitive issues e.g. prejudice, death etc. and follow these up in discussion during class circle times and R.E. times.

·  Be sensitive towards other denominations and encourage a free dialogue between the children emphasising that there is no element of one being better than another.

Practice

We meet daily in the junior and dining halls. KS2 at 9am and KS1 at 10.05am.

There is a weekly theme, based on the Christian Value of the half term and from the SEAL program.

Children are seated comfortably on the floor and listen quietly to music. A focus for worship (candle, picture, OHP) may be provided.

Children are encouraged to take part in the prayers and are invited to respond to questions posed during the ‘story’ or ‘teaching’ part of the worship and to use acting skills to tell a story.

The member of staff in charge varies each day, the pattern being:

Monday Headship Team

Tuesday Minister is well known and leads worship alone

Wednesday Pupil day – where there is a class assembly shared with parents, School Council and Playground Champions also lead assemblies

Thursday kS2 Praise assembly – learning song and listening to a bible verse and prayer led by children

KS1 Achievement and Awards Assemblies R/1/2

Friday KS2 Achievement and Awards Assemblies–3/4 - 5/6

KS1 Praise – as above

Within the worship a time of quiet and prayer is always experienced.

The development of the spiritual nature of the child is seen as having great value and collective worship is used to promote this.

Staff are expected to regularly attend Acts of Worship.

The Headteacher has the responsibility to ensure that the children are having a meaningful experience during collective worship and regularly review the process in conjunction with the Governors (i.e. regular review of policy).

Agreed by the Headteacher: ______Date: ______

Agreed by the Governing Body: ______Date: ______

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