In a church school, assemblies
are known as ‘collective worship’. This is because these times together include
opportunities to stop and reflect, time to think, to be thankful, to share and
to explore our school values.
At Tacolneston we have whole-school collective worship which
linked to our value such as kindness, truthfulness, friendship, compassion,
perseverance, etc. This is led by the Executive Headteacher on Mondays, and
teacher-led on Wednesdays. Tuesdays, Collective Worship is in-class, to give each
child the opportunity to personally reflect and think deeper about the thought
for the week introduced the day before. During this, children draw, write or
make notes in their personal journal. On Thursdays, we have singing worship
where we learn and reflect on songs of thanks, celebration, seasons,
friendship, etc. We finish the week on Fridays with Celebration Collective
Worship, where we award certificates for children who have shown particular
values during their week and also celebrate birthdays and other achievements in
and out of school.
Collective Worship is also a time
when we reflect on world events, respond to things that are in the news, and
join in national events and celebrations such as Remembrance Day, Anti-bullying
week, World Book day etc. During the year, the programme reflects the church
calendar, with links to Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter and Pentecost for
example.
Each Collective Worship has a
similar structure – listening silently to music as we come together, a
beginning, a story, application and reflection, time to think or pray, a song,
a thought to take away and an ending, with music again as we leave. As a church
school, our Collective Worship has a basis in the teachings of Jesus and
Biblical themes such as love, joy, peace, justice, trust, compassion, hope,
community and wisdom.