At Farsley Springbank Primary School we set aside Collective Worship time to foster an ethos of sharing knowledge, feelings, experience and togetherness. It is a time to capture the sense of belonging to our school, to the wider community and to the society and world in which we live. We aim for our programme of collective worship to enrich the life of school in many ways and try to be creative and imaginative in organising this provision.
Collective Worship:
At Farsley Springbank we see collective worship as an educational opportunity with clear objectives for spiritual development and wider SMSC awareness
We use this time to encourage pupils to:
Show interest and concern for, members of the school and wider community
Commune for celebration of special occasions
Show concern for the daily happenings in school life, the local community, the wider world
Share appreciation of projects undertaken by groups within the school
Explore and review the variety of values, attitudes, standards, manifested in religions and society
Reflect upon dimensions of human life –wonder, beauty, joy, humour, tragedy, sorrow etc.
Reflect on the way humans reflect spiritual feelings through the arts, science, religion and service.
Organisation of Collective Worship
KS2 and KS1 separately take part in two collective worship assemblies per week centred around a whole-school value to include prayer/thought for the day, one singing assembly containing collective worship led by school staff to include thought for the day and one in-class collective worship led by class teacher to include period of reflection.
KS2 and KS1 combine for one celebration assembly including collective worship led by member of senior leadership to include prayer/thought for the day.
These are our key principles in planning collective worship:
All children will take part in Collective Worship every day.
All members of staff will be given the opportunity to lead Collective Worship.
All children will also be given the opportunity to take a lead and to participate.
Members of appropriate organisations will be invited to share in Collective Worship.
Themes used will sometimes relate to the cycle of the seasons, the wonders of the world, the deeds of man and the celebration of religious festivals. They will also relate to the children’s interests – classroom activities, the interests of the community and values upheld by individuals and other communities.
The themes will be put forward in a variety of ways, e.g. through story, prose, poetry, drama, art, music, discussion.
There will be opportunity to recognise the distinctiveness of the many faiths and world views shared in our community.
The collective worship will include the singing of hymns and songs and opportunities are given, both to join in with and to listen to prayers.
Time will also be provided for silence and reflection.
The School will meet sometimes as a whole and sometimes in smaller groups.
Reflection and prayer
Collective worship should include the opportunity for reflection. This may include the use of prayers. Sensitivity should be used to ensure that prayer or other forms of spirituality are as inclusive as possible. Assumptions or assertions about specific doctrinal beliefs may make it difficult for members of some faith communities, or pupils without religious affiliation, to participate. It may be introduced with a phrase that recognises pupils will use the words in different ways. Some may reflect the words of the prayer in their own thoughts. Others, with no specific religious faith, will be able to reflect on the theme and the aspiration of the words without necessarily implying belief in a deity or conformity to a particular religious tradition.
Visitors
Visitors can enrich collective worship and build partnership with the local community. We invite members of faith communities, other ethical traditions and community groups to share in the programme. We ensure full safeguarding procedures are in place. Regular visitors to school who have access to children should have DBS enhanced disclosure. We will ensure that extremist or intolerant views, of any political or religious kind, will not be allowed in assemblies or elsewhere and we will follow appropriate safeguarding policies as appropriate.
Equal Opportunities
All children have an entitlement to access to Collective worship. All children will have access to appropriate resources within the school. These will reflect a multi-cultural society, without stereotyping or discrimination. We are mindful of the need to promote the inclusion of all protected characteristics and all children will be given the opportunity to participate in all activities.
Monitoring and evaluation
This policy and guidance will be monitored and evaluated on a regular basis by all stakeholders of the school including pupils, parents, staff and governors.
The Law
The current law is determined by the Education Reform Act 1988, with some requirements deriving from the Education Regulations 1981. In summary the law says this:
Withdrawal of pupils
Parents have a statutory right to withdraw their children from collective worship. However, it is always good practice to arrange to discuss this with parents if a request emerges. There may be issues about a particular aspect of the programme which may be allayed after discussion. If the parent still feels they wish to withdraw their child, the request should be made in writing to the head teacher. This must be allowed by the school, which also needs to provide alternative activity and supervision for this pupil.
Policy approved by Teaching and Learning committee February 2017
Policy will be reviewed every 2 years