Faith and Collective Worship

Our Faith

Christ Church CE School is a Church of England school. We have a distinctly Christian ethos, where shared respect, compassion and consideration for other faiths are all valued and celebrated. Our faith and ethos permeate through everything we do in our school and community.

Our school's values patience, charity, hope, faith, forgiveness and our vision underpins the Christian belief that God loves us all and we all matter.

We make every effort to foster excellence in all that we do; both in our learning and through our social responsibility. We believe that everyone within our school community should be cherished and treated with utmost love and respect and that each of us has a privilege to develop and become the best we can be. Equally, we believe that we all have an obligation to demonstrate respect and tolerance towards each other and this is fundamental to what we believe within school and this permeate through our daily work and interactions, relationships and decisions.

We are continuing to build closer links with the church where we collaborate to make a difference in our community.

Our school values window in the hall.		More of our values window..
Faith.		Hope.
Charity.		Patience.

Collective Worship

Collective Worship is an integral part of school life.

Collective Worship happens daily in a number of ways. We come together as a whole school and in and classes. There is always time to reflect and pray – to be still and have time to think.

Children take an active part in our Collective Worship, either by writing and sharing prayers, acting out Bible stories or contributing through music and song. Collective Worship themes are the weekly focus and we ask ‘big questions’ each week to help us reflect and think about ourselves, others, the beauty around us and the beyond – these questions give us opportunities for further discussion and exploration.

Whole School Assemblies

We meet four times a week in the school hall for a whole school assembly.

At the start of the week we focus on a theme of the week and this is linked to the teachings of Jesus as well as other Faiths represented in the school, in order for us to make a difference to ourselves and others. These are often very moving and spiritual moments in the day.

An example of some of these themes perhaps may be perseverance, love, charity, patience, endurance, peace, hope, empathy etc. There is a different theme of the week each week throughout the year.

We are very fortunate to have Reverend Toby who leads Collective Worship fortnightly.

Our school’s Faith Team plays an important role in leading, monitoring and evaluating worship.

Collective Worship in Class Linked with Picture News

On Wednesdays, teachers lead collective worship in their class linked with Picture News, this is designed to expose children to current affairs, including religious, cultural, environmental, social, moral, and spiritual. It is there to discover their interests and bring the world closer to their everyday lives. It encourages them to be courageous advocates and voice opinions about anything they feel passionately about.

Our Sendings display.		Our Greetings display.
Our Worship Table.		Our Collective Worship Board.

Star-Pupil Assembly

On Friday, we meet as a school community for our Star-Pupil Assembly. In this assembly we focus on all the positive things that have taken place in the week and children are recognised for their hard work and the skills and talents they have shared with us.

Worship through Song

On Thursdays, we are fortunate to have Miss Galka leading our singing assemblies, this is where we meet together to learn new hymns and variety of songs which we use in church on special occasions and in assemblies.

Our Spiritual Garden

We have a beautiful Spiritual Garden where people can go when they would like time be calm and quiet. The area is also used for reflection and stories.

The garden was designed around the theme of ‘creation’ and some of the children helped with deciding what kind of things they would like in the garden. There are lots of different things to look for which represents God’s wonderful world.

The children are allowed to use the garden at lunch times as a choice when they would like some quiet time. Remembrance is a very important feature of the garden –and if anyone wishes to place a pebble in our ‘in loving memory of’ vase they are most welcome to do so.

Prayer of the Moment

Whole School Prayer

Bible Stories linked with Our Values

David and Goliath (Faith and courage).		The Prodigal son (Forgiveness).
The Good Samaritan (Charity).		The Wise Man and the Foolish Man (Patience).
Walking in the footsteps of Jesus.		The Lost Sheep.
Jesus helps the paralysed man (Hope).		The Trinity.