We regularly come together as a class, classes or school community in worship.
Whole School Worships – KS1 and KS2
Our whole school comes together at appropriate times of the year to go to Mass, celebrating the beginning and end of terms and celebrating special saints days. For Remembrance Day, we come together as a whole school in the courtyard and remember those who have died. Canon Mullins comes to join us and says a special prayer, whilst our GIFT team reads out special poetry from war time. We also have one of our Music teachers play the last post and we stand to reflect together as a whole school community. We also hold Rosary sessions during Breakfast Clubs and breaktimes during May and October. We also hold a Crowning of Mary ceremony during May.
Phase worship – Upper Key Stage Two
We often come together at special times of the year as a phase to celebrate and reflect on the liturgical year. This includes Faith Walks using our Marian walk, Christmas reflections using Taize worship and art workshops, RE book and a biscuit, where the children reflect on what they’ve learned in RE and share with someone from another class in the phase, Stations of the Cross pupil led worship during Lent. Our GIFT team take roles within this, but our children use this time to reflect on their own understanding and significance of the Gospels in their own lives.
Singing Worship Assembly – Weekly for KS1 and KS2
Our children have a devoted session which we call our Singing Worship Assembly, which is led by Miss Thomas and a member of our Senior Leadership Team. The hymns / carols / songs change dependent upon the liturgical season and are a mixture of traditions – modern, Hillsong, Taize, songs written by our staff, down to more traditional hymns. This session not only prepares our children for singing at Mass, but also gives them a good grounding in a range of hymns that they can use within their pupil led sessions. The hymns are age appropriate and are developed right the way from our youngest children in Nursery with Come and Join the Circle up to our eldest children singing from a vast array of traditions, tempos and with varying accompaniments.
Within our singing worship assemblies, children are not only exposed to practising songs, but are also exposed to the origins of hymns and the power of prayer through singing. Scripture quotes from around the school are also discussed, as is the meaning to us as believers in some of the traditional prayers we say.
Pupil Led Worship – Classes
Our school chose to move to pupil-led worship over the past few years, during which this aspect of Prayer and Liturgy has transformed beyond recognition, from our children developing the knowledge and skills to lead a worship first planned by teachers to now having our older children planning, delivering and evaluating worship sessions themselves. Classes choose children each week to be Prayer Leaders and they are given time during the Singing Worship Assembly with their class teacher to plan out and resource their worship session, which for all bar two classes (due to timetabling) takes place at 8:30 on Friday mornings. The worship sessions are adapted as follows:
Nursery: Pupils choose an action / response to the Word to complete as a class.
Reception: Pupils choose how to gather and an action / response to the Word as well as a prayer.
Year One: Two children plan the whole worship session with their teacher. Teacher delivers where appropriate.
Year Two: Two children plan the whole worship session with their teacher. Pupils deliver where appropriate and are supported to do so by their teacher.
Year Three: Two children plan and deliver the whole worship session with the teacher prompting where appropriate.
Year Four: Two children plan and deliver the whole worship session alongside the teacher. Less teacher involvement in the session.
Year Five: Children plan, deliver, resource and evaluate the whole worship session independently. Four children are involved in the planning session, during which Lectio Divina is used. Teachers give children longer time to plan because of its complete independence. Teacher is a participant in the worship session.
Year Six: Children plan, deliver, resource and evaluate the whole worship session. Two to three children are involved in the planning session, during which Lectio Divina is used. Teacher is a participant in the worship session.
