Collective Worship
What is Collective Worship?
The government requires an act of Collective worship for all registered pupils in maintained schools on a daily basis. It states: Collective worship in schools should aim to provide the opportunity for pupils to worship God, to consider spiritual and moral issues and to explore their own beliefs, to encourage participation and response, whether through active involvement in the presentation of worship or through listening to and joining in the worship offered; and to develop community spirit, promote a common ethos and shared values, and reinforce positive attitudes.
Church of England schools are committed to offering high quality collective worship. They are places that recognise and value collective worship as central to fostering a sense of community and to expressing the school’s Christian vision. In practice this means that structure, planning, evaluation, participation, collaboration, and inspection of worship are all taken seriously by the school and by diocesan authorities.
In Church of England schools, collective worship is seen as more than a daily ‘awe and wonder’ moment. It is the unique heartbeat of the school and is offered as part of a wider opportunity for pupils and adults to encounter faith by engaging in conversations about God, both as individuals and together.
Collective worship in a Church of England school will do the following:
• Explore the school’s vision and how that underpins shared values and virtues. In doing so, it will reflect on moral values such as compassion, gratitude, justice, humility, forgiveness and reconciliation; and develop virtues such as resilience, determination and creativity that develop character and contribute to academic progress.
• Help pupils and adults to appreciate the relevance of faith in today’s world by encountering the teachings of Jesus and the Bible and developing understanding of the Christian belief in the trinitarian nature of God.
• Offer the opportunity, without compulsion, to all pupils and adults to grow spiritually through experiences of prayer, stillness, worship and reflection.
• Enable all pupils and adults to appreciate that Christians worship in different ways, for example using music, silence, story, prayer, reflection, as well as through the varied liturgical and other traditions of Anglican worship, festivals and, where appropriate,the Eucharist.
• Enable pupils to develop skills through engaging in the planning, leading and evaluation of collective worship in ways that lead to improving practice
Why is collective worship important?
Collective worship gives pupils and school staff the opportunity to:
Engage in an act of community.
Express praise and thanksgiving to God.
Be still and reflect.
What makes a good collective worship?
It ought to be an open ended reflective experience, providing opportunities to explore and appreciate what faith communities do and feel when they worship. It should encourage pupils and staff to acknowledge or recognise that there is a spiritual dimension to their lives.