Collective worship is highly valued. Pupils, regardless of their beliefs, appreciate collective worship as a time to reflect and grow. They find it inspiring and challenging. They also appreciate it as a time to be together as a whole school community, as do staff.SIAMS Report 2025

In Naburn Church of England Primary School worship is central to the life of school. It is well planned and of high quality so that the whole school community is engaged on a journey of discovery, exploring the teachings of Jesus and the Bible.

For Christians in Church, worship is about honouring God and responding to the loving nature of God as revealed through the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. A school is not a Church but is a collection of people who come from a variety of backgrounds for the purpose of education. The family backgrounds may be very different and collective worship must take account of the varied circumstances of staff and pupils.

At Naburn Church of England Primary School, collective worship aims to be inspirational, invitational and inclusive and will lead people to a threshold where they can witness worship and join in, if they wish.

Through Collective Worship pupils will be offered a space and a place for the telling of the Christian story. They will be offered an understanding of worship through being invited to participate in or observe prayer, reading and reflection on the Bible, liturgy, sacrament and experience of the musical and other imaginative riches of Christianity. Opportunities to reflect on the beauty, joy and pain of the world will be given. Pupils will be given time to consider their responsibilities to others and to grow in love and service. Time will be given for celebration, both for the accomplishments of school members and to mark the seasonal festivals of the Christian faith. Pupils will be offered time to be able to contemplate and develop spiritually.

Themes for Collective Worship

Our termly themes focus on a particular idea/concept e.g. the Christian year, RE curriculum, festivals and celebrations within Christian and other faith traditions, Christian values, Jigsaw materials and celebrating achievements.

• We use a wide range of resources, aids and artefacts, drama and external speakers to engage children’s Interests.
• Encouraging children to participate and experience different styles of worship e.g. prayer, praise, song, silence and becoming familiar with the language of worship, Biblical readings.
• Providing opportunities for pupils to reflect, contemplate on their thoughts, feelings and belief and writing prayers.
• Involving pupils and members of the community to both lead and participate in collective worship.
• Presenting and creating displays that promote and enhance spiritual ideas thoughts and questions.

Click here for the Autumn 2 Worship Plan for 2024.

Central attributes of Collective Worship

We will promote Collective Acts of Worship at Naburn Church of England Primary School, which is a meaningful experience. We have four central attributes of worship which help promote a sense of occasion and reverence:

• Gathering – As the children gather, we have our special collective worship table with a lit candle, a Bible and cross for the Holy Trinity. The children gather we play gathering music. We say our gathering prayer, or a prayer linked to one of the Christian values of the school and the Holy Trinity.
• Engaging – we stimulate the children through story, hymns and singing, drama, power point presentations, pupil participation and visual aids
• Responding –we have time for individual and group reflection. This may be through prayer or verbal contributions.
• Sending – We summarise the worship with a meaningful short message about what we have been focusing on in our Collective Worship. We then conclude the worship through the Christian grace.

Please scroll through the slideshow below, or click here for a .pdf version of our Collective Worship Strategy.