St. Michael's CE School

Working Together For The Good Of All

“St. Michael’s Church of England School, established upon Christian foundations and living out the Christian faith, is committed to providing every child with an excellent education.”

WORSHIP

Our combined Mission and Vision Statement states that St. Michael’s School is committed to developing in its pupils an understanding of the Christian faith. At St. Michael’s worship is an integral and highly valued act and is at the heart of our school community and one that has an important impact for staff and pupils both in school and also in their daily lives beyond the school day. We always begin our worship with the following Liturgy which the children lead and respond to both in whole School, Phase and Class worship.

We are blessed with the support from the Worship Team members of St. Michael’s Church who work in partnership with us and are very proactive in delivering worship to the children on a weekly basis as well as leading Church Services for our school community.  By doing this the Team provide the added  ‘innovative dimension’ which enables our school community to explore opportunities for themselves and further engage and lead worship. 

In line with SDBE guidelines, St. Michael’s Collective Worship provides everyone with the opportunity to:

╬ express praise and thanksgiving to God

╬ reflect on the attributes of God

╬ reflect on the teachings of Christ

╬ affirm Christian values and attitudes

╬ share each other’s joys and challenges

╬ celebrate special times in the Christian calendar

╬ foster respect and unity, deepen spiritual awareness

Statutory Requirement

St. Michael’s CE School is fully compliant with the statutory requirements for Collective Worship. Furthermore the school adheres to the Church of England Education Office ‘Statement of Entitlement’. Please click on the link to read the ‘Statement of Entitlement’ and the school responses we have added to personalise this document to reflect all that we do at our school. It is reviewed on a termly basis.

The daily act of Collective Worship is a legal requirement in all schools and one that we value highly at St. Michael’s. In our school, worship reflects the traditions of the Church of England.

Pupils and teachers value the special dimension worship brings to church school life. When asked about what the daily act of worship meant to them, teachers said:

“It gives us time to speak and reflect with the children in a special way, thinking about God and being able to dedicate time to worship Him.” 

Termly Themes

Each week we follow a specific worship theme across the school. The themes are Christian based and reflect our mission, vision, ethos and the Gospel Values. We also incorporate the weekly message about the distinctiveness of our school through the ‘special school message’ and also a link to the British Value and our school ‘Growth Mindset’ Value for the week ahead. These themes are displayed in each Phase area as well as in the classroom on a weekly basis so that the children know what the theme is each week and can relate to it during our worship.

Remembrance

Each year we hold a week of remembrance and share what it means to us as a school community.  We have a number of serving military families and so it has an added meaning of thankfulness.  Here is the presentation link: 2021 Remembrance

Pupil Voice: What is the importance of worship?

Year 3 summarised the importance of worship at St. Michael’s as follows:

“I like worship because it is helpful to know broader themes rather than just what we learn in RE.”

” I like worship because it is helpful to know the whole school’s opinion and views.”

“I like worship because we get to know the theme and more details.”

At St. Michael’s, we have close links, events and weekly worship with St. Michael’s Church, whether at class or whole school level. The children’s’ workers visit the school regularly to be part of the life of the school, offering spiritual guidance, pastoral support and contributing significantly to the Collective Worship. Lord’s Club and Toolbox are two features that the Church are heavily involved with at our school. At key times of the year, services are also held in Church and worship is led by both clergy and pupils.

Weekly Worship – As a Church school we hold daily worship.

Each week we follow a specific theme. The format is as follows: