Collective Worship

Welcome to our page about collective worship. Collective worship is an important part of our day at St Barnabas. During this time, we hear stories, read the bible, sing songs, have time for reflection, have thoughts or actions to take away and actions to help us be a positive change in the world; hear children's prayers and say our daily prayers. Our collective worship is based around a different theme each half term and our focus Christian values (please see our values page and weekly newsletter for more information). Our collective worship is invitational and inclusive. We often include stories from non-Christian faiths and about people with no faith. Children and adults are invited to pray but are offered a time for respectful reflection should they not wish to. Our collective worship is evaluated weekly by children and regularly by adults to ensure it is inspirational and people feel included. This is then reviewed by the worship committee who help plan collective worship. There is a log in school which shows our reflections and prayer and the impact collective worship has had on us. Please ask to see this if you visit.

To support our school values and to develop our understanding of Christian teaching, the themes for Collective Worship are changed each half term and reflect values to support the social, moral, emotional and spiritual growth of our children. Our principal values are friendship, kindness, determination, forgiveness, honesty and co-operation and time is spent exploring what is distinctively Christian about these particular values. Also, many other values are explicitly taught throughout the school day such as: respect, courage, trust and appreciation.

Find out more about our Focus values by clicking here.

Our Ethos Committee lead our daily worship, they prepare our worship table; lead our words of greeting and sending; lead our prayers and read children's prayers. They also evaluate, plan, and deliver collective worship on a regular basis.

Find out more about our Ethos Committee by clicking here.

Worship at our school

Please look at the examples below to understand what worship is like at our school and for ideas of activities, prayers and reflections you can do at home.

Worship 2023-24

Collective Worship Themes 2023-24

	First half term	Second half term
Autumn 2023	Cooperation – trust and forgiveness ‘My God is my strength in whom I trust.’ Psalm 18.2 ‘Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must forgive others.’ Colossians 3.13	Determination ‘I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.’ Philippians 4.13
Spring 2024	Friendship 'Do to others as you would have them do to you.' Luke 6:31	Kindness ‘Clothe yourself with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.’ Colossians 3.12
Summer 2024	Honesty ‘Tell the truth to each other.’ Zechariah 8.16	Community and service ‘Serve one another in love’ Galatians 5.13

On this page we have included some ideas for worship at home including some prayers, songs, ideas and activities. We hope you enjoy finding our about collective worship at our school. Please send prayers, pictures, reflections and activities to your class teacher because we love to share these in school, on our website page and twitter.

Worship and our church links

Our links to St Barnabas church are very important to us. Bethan, Reverend Emma and Reverend Suzy regularly lead collective worship each week at school. We also attend worship at church. We also attend services throughout the year at church. We have a harvest, remembrance, Christmas, Easter, St Barnabas day and leavers service at St Barnabas church. The church team meet with our ethos leader each term to talk about school, review RE teaching and see how well our vision and values are being lived as well as planning collective worship. They also have feedback from our ethos committee on pupil thoughts about collective worship. Bethan also runs our school choir.

Our children also send prayers and reflections to the church congregation and these are shared in church services at regular times through the year.

Our Church and Community

Our half term focus

What is collective worship like?

During this special time we come together to learn and grow and pray and reflect.

Our weekly schedule is:

Monday - news and learning about each other.

Tuesday - main bible story and value focus.

Wednesday - reflection on weekly themes, values and message (in class)

Thursday - songs of praise

Friday - celebration assembly

We have lots of visitors who lead our collective worship and our children lead worship regularly

Parental Right of Withdrawal from Collective Worship

Parents have the right to withdraw their child from collective worship. If a parent wishes to consider this option, the Head Teacher should be approached. If there are any children whose parents exercise their right to withdraw them from worship alternative activities will be provided in consultation with the children’s parents. This does not mean that the children will be in any way exempt from the Christian ethos of the school which underpins the whole of school life. Parents are made fully aware of this when they enrol their children.