Hawksworth Church Of England Primary School

Collective Worship

At Hawksworth CE Primary School, our daily act of collective worship is an important part of the day when we gather as a school community to reflect, think and pray. It is a time when we think about our school values and promote the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of our children.

Collective worship is led by a range of people over the week: Headteacher, our parish priest, Open the Book team, class teachers and the children . We gather altogether as a whole school, sometimes as classes . Father David and Open the Book team each lead collective worship once a fortnight and we are fortunate to be able to invite a range of visitors to also talk to the children as part of our annual programme.

Children play an active part in collective worship. Each week children will lead worship, reflecting on the value for the term, the stories they have been told and what they have taken from worship and used in their daily lives.

Our worship is organised to:

• Observe the cycle of the Church’s Year – Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, Saints’ Days.
• Use the Bible as a source of knowledge and inspiration for themes and stories.
• Learn and say prayers from a number of sources, in particular the Lord’s Prayer. Then allow for a time of silence and reflection.
• Allow opportunities to speak personal prayers aloud.
• Sing a wide variety of hymns and songs.
• Experience Christian symbols in worship and reflecting on their meaning e.g. cross, crucifix, bread and wine and candles.
• Use Psalms with simple responses.
• Celebrate Eucharist.
• Link regularly with the Vicar of Guiseley and Esholt Parish.

The nature of Acts of Worship

Our daily act of worship should be an activity that:

• Is educational and spiritually enhancing
• Fosters a sense of community by sharing in fellowship with each other.
• Creates an atmosphere where those who wish to worship can do so.
• Introduces children to aspects of Christian worship and faith in an open and honest atmosphere.
• Encourages children to be creative, questioning and imaginative, within a Christian framework; also recognising the importance of experience, personal values and respect for the beliefs of others.
• Facilitates spiritual growth, enabling children to become true to themselves and others.
• Explores a relationship with God in Jesus Christ.
• Allows children to reflect on values that are of a broadly Anglican Christian tradition, whilst embracing the validity and importance of other Christian denominations, religions and belief systems.
• Allows children to consider spiritual and moral issues and, through reflection, raise awareness of the ultimate questions of life relating to matters of faith.
• Allows children to reflect on their own beliefs.
• Allows children to deepen and widen the experience of those of ‘faith’ and encourage those of ‘little or no formal faith’ so that they begin to feel for themselves something of what it means to worship.
• Allows children to develop an enquiring mind and express and explore their own views openly and honestly, with respect for the views of others.
• Allows children to develop a community spirit, a common ethos and shared values.
• Allows children to foster an awareness of the world around them and a sense of their place within it
• Allows children to develop a respect for and an understanding of different beliefs
• Allows children to develop a sense of sharing and belonging through different groups of the community coming together.

In addition to the daily acts of collective worship in school there are school services held in the parish church of St Oswald’s. These services include those for Christmas, Easter and an end of year service. Parents and relations are invited to all of these church services.

Monday 

Collective Worship led by Headteacher

Tuesday 

Collective Worship led by Y5/6 pupils

Wednesday 

Collective Worship led by Open the Book Team from Guiseley Parish/Father David

Thursday 

Class based Collective Worship

                       Friday                   

Celebrations Collective Worship

Values for Life

Each half term there is a theme for Collective worship based on 'Values of Life'. These are published at the beginning of the year. Those leading worship are encouraged to relate their worship to this theme. The themes chosen are broad enough to allow all those leading worship to approach the theme from their own perspective. This will mean that by the end of the week, the pupils will have had the opportunity to reflect on the theme from a variety of viewpoints. This pattern is flexible and on occasions, it is recognised that teachers may feel that they need to respond to local or national events.

As a school, we have chosen our ‘6 Key Values’ which are: Love, Trust, Courage, Friendship, Respect and Forgiveness.

These '6 values' are included in our three-year plan for collective worship but we also focus on all 6 at the start of every half-term.

Home School Values

Home School Values are fun activities for your family which follow the values being focused on in school. We trust your family will find these ideas helpful as you explore the value together.

Just click the value (below) you want: 

Year A Values   Courage  Creativity  Peace  Trust   Forgiveness   Justice

Year B Values  Thankfulness   Compassion  Friendship  Hope   Truthfulness   Humility

Year C Values   Generosity   Service   Respect   Wisdom   Responsibility  Perseverance