Collective Worship

As a Church of England school collective worship is central to our school life. Collective worship is a special and significant time of each school day, where we gather together as a school community.

Our acts of collective worship reflect the variety of traditions found in the Church of England and recognise and follow the Christian liturgical year. The daily act of worship is central to our ethos and is supported by all staff and governors. It makes an important contribution to the overall spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of the whole school community.

Each adult and pupil will experience worship that is truly welcoming, inclusive and exemplifying the principles of Christian hospitality.

Collective worship therefore will be:

• Inclusive – Our acts of worship recognise that pupils and staff come from homes of different faith backgrounds as well as no faith backgrounds, so it will be inclusive of, and fully accessible to all. Care will be taken to ensure that language used by those facilitating worship avoids assuming faith of those participating, listening or watching.

• Invitational – In our acts of worship, there is no compulsion to ‘do anything’. Rather, worship will provide the opportunity to engage whilst allowing the freedom of those of different faiths and those who profess no religious faith to be present and to engage with integrity. Pupils and adults will invited to pray and sing if they wish to do so.

• Inspiring – By asking and discussing big questions about who we are and what we do in worship we hope to motivate pupils and adults into action. There will be opportunities to think, reflect and ponder on their own and the wider community’s behaviour and actions.

To help the children gain a greater understanding of the Hever School values, each term we have a focus on one during our acts of worship. They are reflected on in the following order:

Term 1 - Belonging               Term 2 - Courage               Term 3 - Perseverance

Term 4 - Compassion               Term 5 - Trust               Term 6 - Chance to revisit all

We have strong links with St Peter’s Church and visit regularly throughout the year to take part in a range of church services. Our main services each year include Harvest, Remembrance, Christingle, the KS2 Carol Service, Easter and the Year 6 Leavers’ Service.

We also value our strong connections with the wider local community and welcome volunteers to lead worship on a termly basis.

All of the collective worship activities that the pupils take part in help to support and deepen the school community's understanding of what we stand for as a Church school.

Leading Lights

A group of Year 6 pupils, known as our ‘Leading Lights’, promote our school values and regularly contribute to our whole school worship at school and in St Peter’s Church. In addition, our 'Leading Lights' group encourages children to deepen their knowledge and understanding of their faith. It is a group of dedicated pupils who help plan and lead worship in the school, and are also responsible for many of the worship areas around the school.