Collective Worship is a statutory requirement for all schools in England and Wales.  At Bickleigh Down C of E Primary School, Collective Worship is so much more than this.  It is a time where the school family meets together, learns together, reflects together, a time within which children and staff are given a time to be still, to engage and if they feel called, respond. 

Children Leading Worship

At Bickleigh Down C of E Primary School children leading worship is a central part of what we do as a school.  The children will have the following responsibilities.

Format taken from 'Children leading worship' by Helen Matter.

What have we been learning about in Collective Worship?

9th September 2022

Today, Father Simon led a special Collective Worship to remember Her Majesty The Queen.  As a school, we reflected on her life, learnt more about her strong Christian faith and celebrated the wonderful things that she has done.  Our Year 6 Collective Worship Leaders wrote a prayer for our time of reflection.

Father God,

Thank you for Her Majesty The Queen and for her service to us, her people.  Thank you for her faith in you.  She has been a blessing to us from you.  We pray for the Royal Family as they grieve for the Queen.  We thank you for His Royal Highness King Charles III and we pray that you will be with him in the days ahead.

Amen

Autumn Term 2022

In Collective Worship this term we will be focusing on our School Vision which is based on Hebrews 10:24 'and let us consider how we may spur one another on towards love and good deeds'.  The children will be thinking about what this means for them in and outside of our school community and finding out about how this features in the Bible.  Later in the term, we will be finding out about our Christian Value of 'Love' and how Christians today live this out in their local, national and global communities.  We will also be reflecting on how we as a school community can show love to others and spur them on towards good deeds.

Summer Term 2022

This term in Collective Worship we will be focusing on our Christian Value of Hope.  All of our values help us to understand and live out our school's Christian vision of 'Spurring each other on with love' (Hebrews 10;24).  This term, the children will be thinking about how by spurring each other on with love, we hope for a better future for each other.  We will also be reflecting on how the writer of the letter to the Hebrews hoped for a better future for God's people by reminding them to be more Christlike in their actions towards each other.  

There are lots of verses and stories about hope in the Bible.  We will be focusing on Jeremiah 29:11 which says 'For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future'. 

Spring Term 2022

This term we are focusing on our Christian Value of Forgiveness.  In the Bible it says 'For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you' (Matthew 6:14).  So far this term, we have spent time unpicking this verse and thinking about what it means for Christians today.  We have also been thinking about forgiveness and how it is important so that we can spur others on towards love and good deeds.  If you would like to take part in a forgiveness reflection at home, there is a downloadable resource at the bottom of this page.

6th December 2021 - What do we hope for at Christmas time?

This week in worship, we have been thinking about the kinds of things that we hope for at Christmas time.  We have found out that thousands of years ago, the people were waiting for their hope, the messiah.  Over the next few weeks, we will be finding out about why the messiah is so important to Christians and why he is their ultimate hope.

22nd November 2021 - Who brought hope to God's people?

This week in worship, we have been finding out about the different individuals who brought hope to God's people.  After finding out about Abraham and Noah, we have started to think about why Christians believe that God sent Moses to help his people who were in slavery in Egypt.  In class worship, we used our mirror time to consider which attributes Moses had that would make him the right person to help in the rescue plan.  We have also considered how we might bring hope to others in their times of need.

15th November - Inter Faith Week

Today in worship, Mrs Conday talked to us about Inter Faith Week and how communities can come together to do great things.  We talked about the work of a community in London who brought different faith groups together to show love to people during the Covid-19 pandemic.  We thought about how these actions brought hope to so many people and discussed what we could do to support inter faith work in our local area.  To find out more about Inter Faith Week, click on this link: Inter Faith Week.

11th November - Remembrance Day

Today in worship we found out about Remembrance Day and why we wear poppies.  Miss Freeman told us all about the hope that a tiny paper poppy has brought to so many people.  Later in worship we reflected on the hope that service men and woman from the past and today have brought to us and our communities.  We also thought about the hope that we could bring to others on this Remembrance Day.

8th November 2021

This week in Collective Worship, Year One shared a video that they had made about why they wanted to support Children in Need.  The children have decided that we will have a pyjama day next week to raise funds for this charity.  The children helped their teachers to write a letter to parents and carers to explain their fund raising ideas. 

1st November 2021

This week we have been discussing the origins and theology of our school vision.  In our class worship time, we wrote statements to describe the meaning of our vision so that we could share it with other people.  We hope that by sharing our vision, it will continue to reach out into the community.

World Mental Health Day

In worship this week we spent some time talking about world mental health day.  The children took part in a special reflection as part of worship and we talked together about how reflection time could help us to feel calmer and clear our minds of other thoughts.  Have a look below at our special reflection; when might you like to use this in your own time?

11th October 2021

Our Harvest celebrations looked a little different this year.  After finding out about the work of Karma Flights in worship last year, our Year 3 children decided that as Harvest is a time for giving, we should share what we have with others.  In their RE lessons, they learnt about Jesus' teaching of 'freely you receive, so freely give' (Matthew 10:5-8).  The children worked with staff in the year group to share with the rest of the school why they thought we should give to Karma Flights at Harvest time instead of bringing in tins and packages.  The children organised our Harvest celebration worship with Mrs Conday and wrote letters to parents to explain their fund raising ideas.  Children and staff came into school in mufti and brought in a £1 donation for Karma Flights.  As a school, we sang some celebration Harvest songs and representatives from each class came to place the coins on the flags.  At the end of worship, Year 3 counted up the donations.  We are so proud of Year 3 for being courageous advocates and spurring the rest of the school into action.  Well done children!

4th October 2021

Year 3 have started worship this week by talking to us about the work of Karma Flights.  During the Covid-19 pandemic, Kama Flights have been helping communities in Nepal by giving medical equipment and PPE to the people that need it most.  Year 3 found out that Karma Flights now have low funding and are worried about how they will continue to support these communities.  The children requested that our Harvest donation this year should be given to Karma Flights, they led worship today to share their fund raising ideas with the rest of the school.  Later today, some of the children will be writing a letter to parents and carers to share their fund raising plans.  We are really proud of Year 3 and how they are spurring the rest of our school family on towards love and good deeds.

20th September 2021

In worship this week we have been focusing on our value of 'Spirit'.  We remembered that Spirit is what 'makes me, me and you, you'.  We also found out about Pentecost and how Christians believe that the Holy Spirit was given to Jesus' first apostles.

1st March 2021

During the spring term, we have been finding out about our Christian value of love.  The children have been finding out about stories of love from the Bible and thinking about how they could show love to those around them.  In worship today the children came up with ways that they could spur others on with love.

18th January 2021

This week in Collective Worship we have been finding out about our Christian Value of Aspiration.  The children thought about how they could build others up by spurring them on with love.  Each bubble group made pledges to help each other and built a wall of aspiration.  Later in the week, the children thought about their own aspirations for this term and created paperchains to share their goals with the rest of their bubble group.

21st September 2020

This week in worship we have been continuing to focus on our Christian value of 'Hope'.  We have been thinking about why some people sing the song 'Jesus hope of the nations'.  We read the story of creation and thought about what hopes there might have been for God's people at the start of time.  We found out that Adam and Eve didn't follow God's instructions had had to leave the garden.  We wondered what their future rescuer might be like and we made wordles of adjectives to describe them.  Later in the week we thought about what our hopes for the future might be and recorded our ideas using the windows, mirrors and doors sheets.

15th September 2020

This week in worship the children have been thinking about bringing hope to the world around them.  Their discussions have focused upon plastic pollution and being stewards of the world.  In class worship, the children have come up with changes that we can make in our school community to lower the amount of plastic we use.

Here are some of Year 4's suggestions for how we could reduce the amount of plastic that we use as a school...

7th September 2020

Welcome back to all of our Bickleigh Down family.  Collective Worship might look a little different this term but we have worked hard to ensure that it is still a time of engagement, reflection and action.  We will be meeting in class bubble groups and hearing from people in our school community via video link.  We are also looking forward to Father Simon joining us (via the computer) for Friday worship.

This term in Collective Worship we will be finding out about our value of Hope.  We will be investigating the key verse for this value which is:

Jeremiah 29:11

 ¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Later in the term, we will find out about why hope is important for everyone and the impact that it has on the lives of believers.

Special Messages

In worship today the children had some very special messages from staff at our school and those who have worked with them over the last few terms.  All the messages were to spur them on with love.  The children were very excited to receive a message from the team at CBBC!

13th July

This week in school, we have been thinking about our aspirations for the future.  We have listened to lots of stories about people who have aspired to do amazing things and we found out that even when you reach your goal, you might still have an aspiration to do something more.  In our class and bubble groups we talked about our aspirations for the future and the things that we would need to do to reach our goals.  In the Bible it says that 'I can do all this through him who gives me strength' (Philippians 4:13).  Many Christians believe that God gives them the strength to deal with the challenges and achieve their goals.  As a Bickleigh Down family, we will continue to 'spur each other on with love' so that we all reach our goals. 

Have a look at the documents below to find out what our aspirations for the future are.

6th July 

This week in Collective Worship the children have continued to find out about forgiveness.  They have listened to stories from the Bible where forgiveness is shown by Jesus and thought about what it means to know someone's heart.  The children have also thought about forgiveness in action and how we can actively try to forgive those people who have upset us.

29th June 2020

This week in worship we have started to find out about our Christian value of Forgiveness.  The children have talked about who they might need to forgive and who might need to forgive them.  They have listened to stories from the Bible and discussed what they teach Christians.  Towards the end of the week, the children made their own forgiveness flowers and reflected upon what forgiveness meant to them.

22nd June

This week in worship the children have continued to find out about our Christian value of love.  We have looked at different versions of the parable of the Lost Sheep and talked about what it means for Christians.  The children found out that the parable was written to teach Christians that God would always look for them if they go astray.  The children discussed how much Christians believe God must love them and thought about what this means for churches.  Later in the week, the children talked about their own community and how they are all individuals within their classes, bubbles and homes who can offer different things.  They thought about what made them who they are and shared these skills and values inside a sheep shape.  The children concluded that as a school we are all individuals but we all value and care about each other, if one was lost or sad we would find them and bring them back into our Bickleigh Down family.

15th June 2020

This week in worship the children have been finding out about our Christian value of Love.  They have found out about what the Bible says about how much God loves his people and have thought about how they could show love to each other in school and whilst learning at home.  Father Simon led worship on Friday and focused on how Christians believe God shows love to his people.

8th June 2020

This week in Collective Worship, the children have been learning about our Christian Value of Love.  The children read  Mark 12:31 which says 'The second commandment is this Love your neighbour as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.'  After they had read these verses together they thought about who their neighbours were and were surprised to find out that everyone is their neighbour!  Next the children thought about how they could show love at home, in our school community and in our local community. They made class charters and thought of loving actions that they could show to their friends like 'sharing a smile' or 'waving at a friend'. Here are some of the children's ideas for living out this value and our school vision of 'spurring each other on with love'.

Reflection Opportunities for Home

Below you will find downloadable reflection opportunities that you can use with your child at home during their time away from school.  Each of the reflections link to one of our school Christian values. If you choose to use one of these reflections with your child then please feel free to use them as a menu and choose the activities that your child would like to do.  For example, your child may choose not to use the prayer but might want to complete the activity.

Collective Worship with Father Simon

29th January 2021 - https://youtu.be/4xpSf-EbzU8