Collective worship at Westleigh Methodist Primary School aims to:

• Enable pupils to consider spiritual and moral issues, as well as explore their own beliefs.
• Encourage participation and response via active involvement or through listening and participating in the worship offered.
• Provide pupils with the opportunity to plan, lead or contribute to collective worship.
• Provide a peaceful environment to enable stillness, prayer and reflection.
• Help pupils to develop an awareness of their community and the spirit of helping others.
• Develop a spirit of community and an understanding of individuals with other beliefs.
• Acknowledge diversity and affirm each individual’s life stance, whether religious or not.
• Promote a common ethos and shared values.
• Reinforce positive attitudes.
• Promote a growth mindset and support all pupils in their own well-being.

Definition of collective worship

1. For the purpose of this policy, “collective worship” is an act which is additional to, and separate from, ordinary school activities. Collective worship is a time when individuals collaborate to promote the Christian values which are fundamental to the school’s ethos.
2. To “take part” in collective worship implies more than a passive attendance, such that it should have the ability to elicit responses from pupils even though they may not feel able to actively identify in the act of worship on a particular occasion.

Organisation and planning

1. The Headteacher is responsible for creating the Long Term Plan for collective worship.
2. The act of worship, will be held for 20 minutes of the school day in the school hall for 3 days a week and in class exploring Picture News one day a week. On the fifth day, children worship in class with other Epworth Trust Schools in Epworth Worship.
3. Each worship session held will have a theme relevant to current affairs and topics agreed by the headteacher.
4. The content of all acts of collective worship will be considered to ensure suitability and relevance to pupils of all ages and backgrounds.
5. The headteacher will establish a detailed plan for collective worship to make sure progression from each session is carried on to the next, as well as to ensure that learning is practically applied by pupils to their lives inside and outside of school.
6. The school will endeavour to teach the pupils a wide range of worship songs to sing during collective worship.
7. The school may invite visitors or guest speakers to speak during collective worship, in accordance with the timetabled theme.

Below you can find our Collective Worship Policy as well as our Worship Overview for this year.

Picture News

Each week, the Picture News team choose a current news story, provide an image, a thought-provoking question and a variety of worship resources. We use these as the basis for collective worship.

Picture News provide schools with resources to create engaging and exciting worship lessons, allowing opportunities for children to learn about our world, develop independence, resilience, respect and unlock their own drive and passion for learning. Teaching the news not only provides great content and stimulus and grips children’s attention, it is also something that the children can impact. It is current, happening now and so their voice is given meaning and purpose. It is our world and we all matter.

We believe in giving children a voice and encouraging them to use it to impact things they are inspired by or feel passionately about.

Find out more about Picture News here:  Teaching Resources for Assemblies | Picture News (picture-news.co.uk)