“We are a Church of England Voluntary Aided School and Collective Worship at St Michael’s plays a central role in our life and work. It offers important opportunities to strengthen our sense of community, belonging and inclusiveness and to reinforce the respect, honesty and love we have for each other.”
We are proud of the very strong links we have with the Whitton Benefice. Working together we make a significant contribution to the religious, spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of those present.
As well as our daily worship in school, where we welcome the clergy and church community, we also value worship within St Michael’s Church. Here we celebrate significant festivals in the Church calendar: Harvest Festival, Christmas, Easter and St Michaels Day where all our Year 3 children receive their own Bible. As well as this, in church, we welcome our reception children and their families to our St Michael’s family with a Buddy Service led by our Year 6 children. Our year always ends in church with a happy celebration of all that we have achieved, enjoyed and shared together.
As well as our three core school values of Respect, Honesty and Love, each term we explore the Church Value for that term, such as Thankfulness, Justice and Friendship. as part of our worship.
Throughout our daily worship we strive to deepen both the adult and the children’s understanding, helping them make connections between the Church Values, the Bible’s teachings, our own core values and our chosen Bible reference, “Jesus continued to grow in mind and body, loved by God and those who knew him.”
Each term, our headteacher, Mrs Arkwright, introduces the new Church value to our school community which the children and adults then explore in their classrooms, for example through role play, discussions or art. Children are encouraged to further explore the value by writing their own prayers which they take great pride in sharing as part of our whole school celebration assembly.
Each class has the opportunity to lead worship throughout the school year, exploring from their perspective how the Church Values, the Bible’s teaching and our core values are interwoven.
These worships are highly valued by the school community and all adults attend including some of our foundation governors.
Throughout the week we have the opportunity to worship in different ways, through song, prayer, drama, Bible readings and celebrating our lifetime for learning. Worship is led by the clergy, our head teacher, the staff and a particular highlight is our weekly Open the Book led by the church community in which the children always participate. Our week concludes with our Celebration Assembly where parents are inviting to share our worship with us.
We start each worship with a moment of stillness before one of the children lights our three candles as we all remember that “We come together in the name of God the Father who gives us all the things to enjoy, God the Son who loves the world and all the people in it and God the Holy Spirit who helps us to show Respect, Honesty and Love.”
Each worship ends with our school prayer that has been written by the children:
“God Bless St Michael’s School
Let peace be all around us
Let our rooms be full of happiness
Let respect, honesty and love flourish
Help us to be butterflies, spreading our wings
Carrying a lifetime love for learning”
“We are a Church of England Voluntary Aided School and Collective Worship at St Michael’s plays a central role in our life and work. It offers important opportunities to strengthen our sense of community, belonging and inclusiveness and to reinforce the respect and care we have for each other.”
Religious Education is an important component of our children’s school work. Programmes of work refer frequently to other religions particularly when tackling the lives of people from other cultures. Moral and social education is an inherent part of daily school life.
