Collective Worship At Cold Harbour CE Primary School

Collective worship, or assembly as other schools may call it, is a very important part of our school day and Christian ethos. It gives the children the opportunity to come together to hear Bible stories, think, reflect, ask and answer questions, explore ideas, give thanks, sing and pray. The weekly timetable for collective worship is as follows:

Our Worship Ambassadors lead an assembly every half term linked to one of the School Values of Resilience, Respect, Trust, Thankfulness or Honesty.

Maryann Brooks from St. Mary’s Church, Bletchley and Peter Landry from Whaddon Way Church also come in and lead whole school assemblies each term.

Each half term The Bridge Builder Trust lead an assembly that teaches the children a key lesson that has ties with the Bible. The children are invited to share a prayer or to silently reflect on the theme of the assembly to consider how it might be meaningful or impactful to them. Their themes for 2022-23 are detailed below.

Changes what are you rooted in? 07/09/2022

Harvest – Do you really need that? 05/10/2022

Remembrance – Remarkable remembrance 09/11/2022

I’m the king of the castle 23/11/2022

What’s in your box? 07/12/2022

Where do you get your strength from? 11/01/2023

Facing your fears? 01/03/2023

Don’t run from your responsibilities 22/03/2023

The domino effect 19/04/2023

Start with the end in mind 14/06/2023

Collective worship ambassadors

Our Worship Ambassadors are Mary, Diya, Alphenette, Kael, Ava, Ano & Ehsan who will be under the support and direction of the RE Co-ordinator:

• Review and contribute towards the half termly planning of the school’s collective worship scheme.

• Support teachers with KS1 assemblies: reading Bible stories, taking part in role plays, working with children

• Run whole school assemblies

• Share ideas and reflections on the week’s value / teachings with the whole school

• Update the whole school collective worship display board.

Our Legal requirement

All schools must provide a daily act of collective worship for all pupils which must be ‘wholly or mainly of a broadly Christian character’ (Education Reform Act 1988).

The aim of collective worship is to develop pupils socially, morally, spiritually and culturally. The 1994 legal framework documentation regarding collective worship still stands. Added to this is the recent requirement to promote British values as part of Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural development (Ofsted, September 2014, DfE, November 2014).

Collective worship fulfils part of the school’s duty to develop pupils spiritually, morally, socially and culturally. Pupils are given the opportunity to learn about interesting cultural traditions and there meaning, listen to stories with a moral message and reflect on themes such as wisdom, courage or loyalty. It also draws pupils’ attention to the key values we hope to develop and promote both within our school community and in each individual. It is about the growth of the whole person, their character and social outlook, whatever their academic aptitudes.

Collective worship gives pupils and school staff the opportunity to:

• engage in an act of community

• express praise and thanks to God

• be still and reflect

• express the big questions of life and respond to national events

• foster respect and deepen spiritual awareness

• reflect on the character of God ad on the teachings of Christ

• affirm Christian values and attitudes

• share each other’s joys and challenges

• celebrate special times in the Christian calendar

We work closely with our local churches, St Mary’s in Bletchley.  Please visit http://www.stmarysbletchley.org for information about the church and Whaddon Way Church https://www.whaddonway.church/