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Collective Worship

Whether it is held indoors, outside, or at St Andrew’s Church, collective worship is the heartbeat of St Andrew’s School and highly valued by the whole school community. A collective act of Christian worship is held daily. Reverend Steve visits  us fortnightly to lead worship. Rooted in Bible teaching, everyone is invited to explore and respond to Christian values to develop their spirituality and inspire them into action!

Whole School Worship

Parents and carers are invited to join us each Tuesday – please see our Diary Dates.

Whole school worship tends follow a familiar format:

Gather – The tune of The Lord’s Prayer signifies it is time to gather for worship. Our school bears, Faith and Hope join the children to get ready for our special time together. We light our candles ‘In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen’

Share – Our half termly Christian value gives our school family the opportunity to encounter faith through Bible stories and quotes and to explore their relevance in today’s world.

Respond – The children are invited to respond through drama, music, dance and poetry.  We love singing at St Andrew’s and members of the school community are encouraged to participate in joyful praise! We have an active St Andrew’s choir who recently sang at St Alban’s Cathedral.

Prayer – Through our daily invitational prayer, we engage with God. These prayers are often spontaneously created by the children. The community is sent out with a mission to live fully in God’s love. We are reminded of our Golden Rules – to Be Kind and Work Hard.

Class Worship – Picture News

Class collective worship is a more intimate opportunity to explore how the teachings of the Bible are relevant to current affairs. We use the resource ‘Picture News’ which explores a big question from the news and encourages deep thinking and debate. The children consider ‘What would Jesus do?’ and are given opportunities for reflection and/or prayer.

Celebration Worship – led by our Year 6 children

Typically on Fridays, our collective worship is led by our Year 6 children and celebrates those who have gone ‘over and above’ to live the termly Christian value or excel at using their learning powers that week. Our Year 6 presenters give out STAr awards and write and share their own prayers for the weekend.

The effectiveness of our Collective Worship is monitored by members of our Pupil Parliament.

Parents have the right to withdraw their children from collective acts of worship. Due to the invitational and inclusive nature of our Collective Worship at St Andrew’s, no children are currently withdrawn.