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.

Our Christian Values

We base all that we do on a set of jointly held values.  Our values form the basis of our learning over the course of each term on a 3 year cycle.

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 the local vicar and ‘Open the book’ who retell stories from the bible which follow our ‘Values for Life’ theme.

The timetable below shows which Collective Worship we have each day. These are planned by the Collective Worship Leader and the clergy.

Celebrating in our local churches

We visit our local churches, St Andrew’s (Great Finborough) and St Mary’s (Buxhall) to celebrate significant events in the church calendar.

Carol Service & Nativity at St Mary’s, Buxhall.

Church Services Academic Year 2026/27

Open the Book Stories:

We welcome occasional visits from Open the Book. This 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. The volunteers use drama, mime, props, costume – and even the children and staff themselves – to present the Bible stories in lively and informative ways.

Collective Worship Leadership Programme

Collective worship in school is a moment in time that allows everyone the opportunity to grow spiritually and provides a time of reflection and calm during a busy day.

Our older children already playi their part in preparing and leading aspects of collective worship:

• Readiness ‘Preparing the Space’ (A Sense of Invitation)
• Creating ‘An Inclusive Community’ (Everyone Together)
• Leading ‘Invitational Worship’ (Talking & Listening to God)
• Fostering ‘Christian Tradition’ (Our History & Traditions)

In addition to this, we have recently established a team of children known as our Collective Worship Committee who have chosen to take their leadership role further

Our Collective Worship Leadership Pupil Committee

Our Year 6 children are invited to apply for the role of Collective Worship Leader. If their application is successful, they then participate in a formal interview with two members of our Governors’ Ethos Working Party. If successful in being appointed to the role, they embrace a key pupil leadership role in school during Collective Worship and assist Mr Dodd (Headteacher/ Collective Worship Lead) in preparing and delivering two important events in the school calendar Experience Christmas and Experience Easter. They also work towards their Collective Worship Leader Awards.

Link - Collective Worship Leader Award Criteria

Courageous Advocacy: We are Change Makers!

Courageous advocacy means empowering our children to speak out about injustice, support those voices that are often unheard and to take practical action to help others and the world around them. It shifts children from not just simply knowing about local, national and global problems and issues to actively trying to fix them.

During our weekly ‘Change Maker’ collective worships, we aim to support our children to understand local, national and global problems and issues that impact people and the world they live in today and the work of individuals, charities and organisations, past and present that have brought about positive change through using their voices to raise the issues and problems and by actively taking action.   

To foster the sense that everyone, even at a young age, has a personal voice that can speak out about issues impacting others and the world around them, we use our ‘Change Maker’ collective worship to recognise, understand and celebrate people, throughout time, who have dreamt BIG, had BIG ideas and have brought about positive change to the lives of others and the world around them. This fosters and develops in the minds of our children that they too have the voice and power to take action and bring about positive change.

Every year we support a number of well-known charities and organsiations. During the academic year (2026-2027) we are launching our first ‘Change Make Day. This will be an annual event when our older children will be selecting charities and causes close to their heart, bringing their causes to the attention of the school community and raising funds to support the important work of the charities and organisations that bring about positive change.

We believe our focus on ‘Change Makers’ creates compassionate, resilient and empathetic children who will grow up to become responsible global citizens who care about the common good. It aims to foster the understanding that, at any age, we can all make a real positive difference at a local, national and global level.