Church School
What Makes A Church School Distinctive?
LITURGICAL PATTERN |
The Collective Worship times are structured to follow the ‘liturgy’ or pattern of Church of England services. The four elements are Gathering, Engaging, Responding and Sending, and bring the school community together in a time of reflection and celebration with messages from the Bible, prayer and reflection time and singing. We greet each other with phrases such as ‘The Peace of the Lord be with you/ and also with you’ to familiarise the children with language and form they might here in a church setting. |
SYMBOLIC |
Symbols are an important visual aid to reflecting on our core values. You will see crosses and other Christian symbols at key places around the school building. |
DIVERSE |
The Anglican Church is diverse and world-wide and is a fantastic vehicle for exploring Global Links. At Great Finborough, children will have a chance to explore what it means to be a Christian in different countries, cultures and contexts through projects such as the Kagera project. |
Christian Values
We base all that we do on a set of jointly held values, ‘Values for life’ a collection of 12 values that help us to grow and develop. Our values form the basis of our learning over the course of each term on a 2 year cycle.
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Generosity | Friendship |
Respect | Thankfulness |
Courage | Trust |
Perseverance | Forgiveness |
Service | Justice |
Truthfulness | Compassion |
Collective Worship
Worship lies at the heart of Christian life, and at Great Finborough Church Primary our assemblies allow us to join together in a daily act of collective worship which makes links to our school’s core Christian Values. We follow the Anglican Church Calendar when planning Collective Worship and we have built up an excellent relationship with the Church to support this work. At Great Finborough we offer many exciting and spiritually developing experiences for all the children.
Our school’s collective acts of worship aim:
- To give an opportunity to worship God.
- To offer children a spiritual dimension to their lives and personal relationships.
- To provide regular time and opportunity for reflection
- To provide time and opportunity for thanksgiving
- To help children to develop a sense of awe and wonder at the world around them
- To develop an awareness of and concern for the needs of others
- To provide time to share with others the things we have been doing, our thoughts and ideas.
- To help our children develop shared values
- To give children experience of being active members of a caring community.
- To respond in a compassionate and civilised way to experiences of injustice, cruelty, exploitation and greed.
What will my child experience in Collective Worship at Great Finborough?
Each half term, our assemblies focus upon an important Christian value and this value runs through our whole school assemblies. We have Collective Worship every day in the school hall. Different people use the Bible to discuss important topics which help the children think about their own actions and feelings. We also take time to celebrate the children’s successes in and out of school. We have time to sing together and quiet time to reflect and pray; Collective Worship is a time to think and a time to pray. The children play an important role in this and, using the ‘Flippin’ Praise’ publication, even take the lead in delivering Collective Worship. We also have weekly visits from Rev. Chris and ‘Open the book’ who retell stories from the bible which follow our ‘Values for Life’ theme.
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Our current Value for Life is Respect. We have been thinking about this value during our Collective Worship, during class reflection time and when we are moving around the school. As part of our Celebration assembly, we also praise children who have shown this value. Last term’s theme was Generosity.
The timetable below shows which Collective Worship we have each day. These are planned by the Collective Worship Leader and the clergy.
Day | Time | Collective Worship | Teacher Leading |
Monday | 10.30-10.45am | Open the Book/ Key Stage Assembly | Susan Baldry / Siobhan Howson |
Tuesday | 10.30-10.45am | Bible exploration: Bible stories linked to values, or celebrations in line with the church calendar. | Siobhan Howson |
Wednesday | 10.30-10.45am | Singing and Hymn Worship – Hymns related to the Value | Jodie Bennett / Julie Hartley |
Thursday | 10.30-10.45am | Bible exploration: Bible stories linked to values, or celebrations in line with the church calendar. | Reverend Chris / Siobhan Howson |
Friday | 10.30-10.45am | Celebration Assembly – Work, Sporting events, Head Teacher’s Award, Birthdays | Stephen Dodd / Siobhan Howson |
Open the Book Stories:
Open the Book began in 1999 to help thousands of school children discover Bible stories, during collective worship.
Open the Book is a three-year rolling programme of themed and dramatised storytelling. Our volunteers use drama, mime, props, costume – and even the children and staff themselves – to present the Bible stories in lively and informative ways.
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