Froglet Posted July 31, 2012 Share Posted July 31, 2012 Hello all, I'm Collective Worship co-ordinator for our school and just in the process of putting together our CW programme for next year. I have been told that next year I don't have to take my class to whole school collective worship as they are for the first time a reception only class. We will still go to things like the Harvest and Easter services and celebration assemblies. This is great in many ways! However, we're a church school and I'm feeling that there ought to be some kind of act of daily act of worship for all classes. I'm thinking this could be something very simple for my class: a moment to reflect on a piece of music, picture, something in nature, say a prayer, sing a hymn, listen to an appropriate story etc. (not all of those at once). Basically a moment of peace in a busy day. What do the rest of you think? Is there any requirement for reception to have an act of worship in a church school? Does anyone do anything similar to this? Any thoughts on how I could organise? I'm thinking it would be a nice thing to do after dinner so that we can 'rest' before getting into the afternoon. As you might imagine I'm justifying our choices in preparation for a possible SIAS visit! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan Posted July 31, 2012 Share Posted July 31, 2012 Yes, you do have a statutory collective worship requirement, although maybe for those over 5s. You need to check this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catma Posted August 1, 2012 Share Posted August 1, 2012 I also thought that all children in a maintained school above nursery have to take part in an act of collective worship although this does not mean going to assembly. This would be legislation that sits parallel to EYFS and predates it. http://www.education.gov.uk/a0064979/collective-worship Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Froglet Posted August 2, 2012 Author Share Posted August 2, 2012 Thank you both for confirming my vague feelings on this. My reading is that everybody has to do an act of worship but there is no specification about where/who with. So, I'm going to go with a simple but interactive and engaging approach for my class and as the year continues we will build up to participating in more and more whole school worship sessions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan Posted August 2, 2012 Share Posted August 2, 2012 Im sure that will work well. Timetable it too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Froglet Posted August 2, 2012 Author Share Posted August 2, 2012 Absolutely! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 21, 2012 Share Posted August 21, 2012 Hello, in the foundation stage in my school i have developed a 'Daily Worship Planner' its a large Laminated A3 piece of card with the headings 'gather' 'word' and 'mission' on our working wall. Then in a basket i have cards so the children can plan their worships sessions. Gather cards include: -Light a candle -pass around a bowl of water to make a sign of the cross -Play some music - Ring bells gently to get everyone together Word: I choose this and write what we are going to be doing it's normally a bible story, a prayer or a story with a moral behind it. Mission cards include things that the children have to go on and do after our daily worship: -give somebody a hug -smile at somebody -tell your family you love them -help somebody -play with someone you don't normally play with All of the cards have pictures on and I always go through what they mean. The children pick out what the gathering should be and what the mission should be. They love planning their own worship and it takes around 10 minutes each day- after lunch. Brilliant! I would have attached my cards etc but it's all at school on my school computer! It was really quick to make. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Froglet Posted August 21, 2012 Author Share Posted August 21, 2012 Wow! I love these ideas. I'm actually really looking forward to doing CW with just my class and had put together a very rough plan but hadn't got as far as getting the children to plan it. I will definitely be pinching this! Can I ask, when in the day do the children plan it? I'm thinking of doing the actual worship straight after lunch - perhaps we could plan just before lunch or would you do it at the start of the actual worship? We have a phrase for gathering which the whole school uses and they will also light a candle so I'd like to do those as well so that when my class do join the whole school there are familiar elements. Thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 21, 2012 Share Posted August 21, 2012 We plan it as part of the actual session because they automatically come in from lunch and sit on the carpet. We say our after lunch prayer and then go straight into it - I just go down the register picking the next two children, one to choose a gather and one to choose a mission and then we get straight on with it after sticking our plan on the wall. I have a little box with bells, a candle&matches and a bowl and if my computer is failing me we will sing/hum music such as kum-bah-yah instead of listening to it. I am thinking of adding a few different things to gather such as passing a stone around the circle, holding hands in the circle. Missions could be added to aswell once children get used to using it. You could do whatever you liked really. Glad to be of help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Froglet Posted August 21, 2012 Author Share Posted August 21, 2012 (edited) That makes sense - I always have a helper (or 2!) for the day anyway so another of the helpers' jobs could be to do this. I'm all excited. Like the pebble idea too. Have you see the Class worship information from the Diocese of Ely website? Has some nice ideas in that too. I want to find a nice box that can become our 'worship' box and part of the gathering and closing can be the setting up of the focus point i.e. getting the bits out the box and putting them away again! Edited August 21, 2012 by HelenD26 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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