Collective Worship Policy strengthens and supports the Christian ethos of our school, explores our vision “Let their light shine,” and the associated Gospel Values of the school:

Koinonia: friendship, community, fellowship, equality, teamwork

Compassion: love, caring, kindness, charity, empathy, thoughtfulness.

Forgiveness: understanding, selflessness, acceptance, tolerance.

Justice: consideration, fairness, honesty, truth, respect

Trust: integrity, independence, maturity, reliability, sincerity.

Perseverance: determination, courage, dedication, endurance, bravery

Thankfulness: gratitude, appreciation, generosity, modesty

Our worship reflects the variety of traditions found in the Church of England and will recognise and follow the Christian liturgical year.

Worship in our school is not simply a statutory duty. The daily Christian act of collective worship is the heartbeat of our school, central to our ethos and is supported by all staff and governors. It makes an important contribution to the overall spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of the whole school community.

Principles of collective worship

Each adult and pupil will experience worship that is truly welcoming, inclusive and exemplifying the principles of Christian hospitality (see Church of England’s Collective Worship Guidance).^[1] Collective worship therefore will be:

• Inclusive – Our acts of worship recognise that pupils and staff come from homes of different faith backgrounds as well as no faith backgrounds, so it will be inclusive of, and fully accessible to all. Care will be taken to ensure that language used by those facilitating worship avoids assuming faith of those participating, listening or watching.
• Invitational – In our acts of worship, there is no compulsion to ‘do anything’. Rather, worship will provide the opportunity to engage whilst allowing the freedom of those of different faiths and those who profess no religious faith to be present and to engage with integrity. Pupils and adults will only be invited to pray and sing if they wish to do so.
• Inspiring – By asking and discussing big questions about who we are and what we do in worship we hope to motivate pupils and adults into action. There will be opportunities to think, reflect and ponder on their and the wider community’s behaviour and actions.

Implementation

In addition to the above, we seek to provide acts of Collective Worship that reflect the faith and practice of the Church of England. Therefore:

We use the Bible as a sourcebook for inspiration and learning and make pupils familiar with the Lord’s Prayer, Psalms and other verses of scripture. We also introduce them to a variety of well- known prayers – many of which express the central beliefs of Christians throughout the ages. Our Stock School Prayer is also a daily component of collective worship and incorporates our Gospel Values and school vision:

Loving God,

We thank you for our school community.
Help us to live in koinonia, sharing our lives with one another in friendship and respect.

Guide us to seek justice, to show compassion in our words and actions,
and to trust you and one another each day.

Teach us to be thankful for all we have,
ready to forgive as we are forgiven,
and to persevere when learning is difficult or times are hard.

Let our light shine,

Amen.

We use aspects of Anglican liturgy to create a framework for worship e.g. gather, engage, respond, send. We observe the cycle of the Anglican year including celebrations of the major Christian festivals.

We foster links with All Saints Church, involving the Reverend Jacqui Pearson in leading collective worship and providing coherence between worship in church and school and visit multiple times throughout the year as part of the Christian calendar.

We recognise that different members of our school community spiritually reflect in different ways. Music, story, silence, prayer, drama and other approaches are incorporated within a varied collective worship offer.

Connections with other Christian denominations and faiths

The Anglican Communion sees itself as part of a global church and promotes ecumenism. At Stock, we work to promote links with other local churches and Christian organisations and welcome their clergy and leaders as contributors to acts of collective worship. We recognise that while some of our pupils and families belong to Anglican churches, many worship regularly at churches of other Christian denominations, while others come from different faith backgrounds or none. We endeavor to provide a setting in which the integrity of those present is not compromised, where everyone finds something positive for themselves and there is no pressure to participate inappropriately or to believe.

Rights and Responsibilities

As established by the 1944 Act and reinforced through this policy, parents have the right to withdraw their children from Collective Worship. If parents wish do exercise this right they should email admin@stock.essex.sch.uk FAO the Headteacher.

Our Collective Worship Pattern and Practice   

Planning

Collective worship is planned by the Deputy Headteacher and who makes use of the Diocese of Rochester Collective Worship planning which follows a 3-year cycle. This ensures our collective worship is coherent and sequential. The planning reflects the cycle of the church year and enables us to nurture our gospel values and vision.

Spiritual growth through prayer, stillness and reflection is nurtured and is a key aspect of all collective worships.

Organisation

The school meets as a community at 9am every day for collective worship. This puts collective worship front and centre of our school day and demonstrates the value and importance it is given at Stock.

Our collective worship is led in the following way:

Monday: Headteacher Collective Worship – Introduction to the week’s theme / culture & expectation setting for the school week.

Tuesday: Teacher Collective Worship – Builds on the week’s theme adding depth to the concept or theme.

Wednesday: Singing Collective Worship – Hymns and religious songs are used to praise and worship.

Thursday: Deputy Headteacher Collective Worship – Concludes the week’s theme ensuring deep knowledge and reflection

Friday: Headteacher Gospel Values and Celebration Collective Worship – Celebrating children who have demonstrated Gospel Values throughout the week and who have ‘let their light shine,’ in other ways, in school and outside of school.

Our Year 6 Worship Leaders play a key role in the smooth running of our collective worships, putting out benches and tables and supporting with IT.

Contribution to Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural development

We recognise that although SMSC development should be fostered across the whole curriculum, acts of Collective Worship provide a multitude of opportunities in this area. For example, children will be encouraged to reflect on and celebrate the deeper meanings of life, consider their own behaviour and recognise the need for forgiveness, appreciate the contributions of others and respond to their needs, value their own culture and the cultures of others.

What is courageous advocacy?

Courageous advocacy is defined by the Church of England as “the act of speaking out against an issue of injustice, often on behalf of those whose voice is not heard.” At Stock Church of England Primary School, we encourage and support our children to become courageous advocates who believe that they can become ‘agents of change’ to strive towards a fairer and more joyous world. This means that they champion causes that are special and meaningful to them; connected to matters and concerns personal and close to home for them or linked to wider global issues.

Courageous Advocacy at Stock Church of England Primary School

Stock is a strong Christian community where all unite and flourish. Our family is guided by our Gospel values of Compassion, Koinonia, Perseverance and justice enabling everyone to thrive as happy and fulfilled individuals. Ignited by or vision, children shine as a light in the world.

All acts of courageous advocacy at Stock school are driven by our school’s Christian vision. Children act together with a purpose that people may live happily together in unity and serve their community by being responsible citizens. Our Christian vision encompasses God’s vision that everyone should live well together. Compassion, justice, koinonia and perseverance are four of our core Christian values and are at the heart of courageous actions and decision making by children and adults. A core element of our Christian vision is affinity. Through this we actively nurture each child to understand individual rights and develop attitudes of self-respect responsibility and tolerance allowing our children to grow into responsible citizens who care for their environment and make a positive contribution to society others in the school, local and global communities.

“Serve one another in love.” (Galatians 5:13)

In collective worship, RE lessons and other times of reflection and prayer, biblical references are explored to deepen children’s understanding and enable them to live out our Christian vision and values to serve others and enable themselves and others to flourish.

Jesus spoke up for people who were disadvantaged, disempowered and ignored by their communities. Children are encouraged to reflect on Jesus’ actions and teachings to inform their own values, judgements and courageous choices.  

At Stock, aspirational teaching encourages and challenges children to be their best selves, to take pride in their work, and to be positive members of the school and wider communities. Lessons and experiences across the curriculum, opens the children’s eyes to an understanding of the world, their place in it and how they can act to make positive changes for their local and global communities. Children learn about their own and other communities and world events and issues. They learn about people in history and present day who have shown courage and compassion whilst acting courageously to make the world a better place. This offers children hope and the tenacity to succeed in their endeavours

Driven by our aim for our children to ‘shine as a light in the world’, staff encourage the children to become ‘agents of change’, championing causes which are especially meaningful for the children themselves

Our courageous advocacy projects are a step beyond a national awareness day or general fundraising event. This academic year, each year group at started with a class debate where children identified causes that resonated with them. and, following discussion of the themes within the text, children have identified a cause which resonates with them. The children have asked questions, researched facts, shared ideas about how they might take action, and have been empowered to begin on their journey as agents of change.

The Church of England sets out an example plan of steps that may be pursued by pupils as they plan and take action:

Step 1: Identify a problem or issue you care about

Step 2: Investigate as much as you can so you understand: consider all views

Step 3: Work out what could be done to change or improve it

Step 4: Identify the people with influence to make those changes

Step 5: Consider whose help you might use to make your voice more persuasive

Step 6: Persuade those with power to make changes to do something about it

Encouraged and supported by adults, the children at Stock Church of England School will engage in a range of strategies to raise awareness, influence the community to understand and perhaps get on board, as well as engaging with key decision makers; for example, the school governors, local mayor, MP and businesses. To safeguard the children, staff support them by leading them to consider the possible outcomes of their actions and ensuring that they take into account law, school policies and procedures, ethical and safety considerations.

School Community Courageous Advocacy Close to Home

A charity that is very close to our hearts at Stock is the local food bank. At Harvest, Christmas and other times, the school community contributes essential food and toiletry items to the food bank. These are then shared with families in need within the local area. When we are able, groups of children and staff visit the foodbank in order for the children to help weigh in the donations and organise them ready for distribution. This really helps the children to feel involved in making a difference within our local community.

The children also bake cakes at school and the School Council sell them after the harvest festival at All Saints Church in Stock. The proceeds also go to support the Billericay Food Bank

Awareness Days and Fundraising

Each academic year, children and adults enthusiastically participate with, and contribute towards, a wide range of charities and awareness days. These include:

• Comic Relief – Red Nose Day
• Children in Need
• Sport Relief
• The Royal British Legion
• MacMillan Coffee Morning
• Harvest cake sale at All Saints Church Stock

Other Courageous Actions Courageousness is a quality that is at the heart of all actions and decision-making made by children and adults at Stock including governors. Staff act courageously when safeguarding children, supporting families and when modelling our high standards and expectations for relationships and behaviours. At Stock School we work to ensure that sustainability is considered at all points and embedded in decision making. Along with the usual recycling of resources and careful budget decisions, school developments in recent years have included: changing lighting to low energy; planting a wild flower meadow.

At Stock school we have seven gospel values which underpin the ethos of the school and the expectations of behaviour for the whole school community.

The Gospel Values are:

Reception   Hedgehogs

Perseverance: determination, courage, dedication, perseverance, bravery.

Year 1         Rabbits

Koinonia: friendship, community, fellowship, equality, teamwork.

Year 2         Butterflies

Forgiveness: understanding, selflessness, acceptance, tolerance.

Year 3         Moles

Compassion: love, caring, kindness, charity, empathy, thoughtfulness.

Year 4         Bees

Thankfulness: gratitude, appreciation, generosity, modesty

Year 5         Otters

Trust: integrity, independence, maturity, reliability, sincerity.

Year 6         Owls

Justice: consideration, fairness, honesty, truth, respect.

The gospel values are displayed all around the school and each class has been given one of the gospel values which has been linked to an animal. During the course of the year each class leads a collective worship focusing on their gospel value.

When a teacher identifies that a child’s actions have demonstrated a particularly good example of one of our values the child is presented with a certificate in our Friday Celebration Assembly.

The children are very clear in their understanding of the gospel values and the Christian ethos provided by the school and we believe that this knowledge enables them to grow into conscientious, independent and positive citizens. Our vision is to encourage the children to see that gospel values go beyond the school gate so they will have high standards of behaviour and respect the ideas, attitudes, values and feelings of themselves and their community.

The spiritual development of children is fostered through all aspects of our provision. Whilst encountering a wide range of opportunities that enable their own spiritual journey to flourish, children and adults develop their sense of self and uniqueness, and develop their worldview whilst flourishing spiritually, socially, academically and personally.

At Stock we have defined spirituality as follows:

Spirituality is a feeling within us and an awareness of something ‘bigger’ than ourselves. It’s about awe and wonder; making sense of the world around us; being moved to make positive change to protect and care for others and our environment.

Spiritual development is developed in three ways:

Windows

1. By looking out and being aware of the world around us. –  e.g children to look at the wonders of the world – to be appreciative of its beauty and to show awe and wonder

Mirrors

2. By thinking and asking important questions and learning from our own and each other’s responses. Children are given opportunities for contemplation; asking deeper questions and for reflection – RE specifically allows for this but opportunities do also arise in other subjects – eco and social questions.

In Collective worship we ask and answer Big Questions about life.

Doors

3. By making choices, developing the capacity to change an opinion, attitude or behaviour. To act expressly on these views (e.g. courageous advocacy)

It is the way in which we utilise our thoughts and emotions to reflect, respond to, and seek to give meaning and purpose to the experiences that we encounter in life. It helps us to understand ourselves and our place in the world.

How we can explain spirituality to children

It can be very challenging to explain spirituality to young children. Therefore, we use analogies to which the children may connect and help ignite and develop their understanding.

For example, by looking at a ring donut!

This tasty treat is used to represent a person, their mind body and soul. With the soft, sweet outer ring easy to describe and representing a person’s mind and body. The important inner hole is an essential part to make the cake a whole ‘ring donut’. There is nothing seen in that space and so it is more difficult to understand, describe and explain, but it is still important. This space inside the donut illustrates where our spiritual self lives; where our beliefs, faith and ide support us to share our outer selves with the world; something special ‘beyond’ the tangible that makes us whole.

At Stock time is given for reflection or ‘stilling’ during lessons and during collective worship. As mental health issues are on the increase in children an important element of our children’s’ education is to teach them mindfulness and to help them to develop techniques to be calm and settled and to be contemplative. Children are encouraged to embrace periods of peace and reflection.