Religious Education, Collective Worship and Spirituality
Collective Worship
As a church school, our daily act of worship is really important to us. Our worship is invitational, inclusive and inspirational. In worship, we help children to develop spiritually whether they are Christian, belong to another faith or have no faith. We reflect on our world and our place in it, as well as thinking about the rights of children across the world.
We invite families to join us for whole school collective worship twice per week at 9.00am:
Mondays: Amazing Attitude Award Assembly – awards chosen by class teachers for great learning behaviours.
Fridays: World Aware Worship, including celebration of birthdays from the week (Sunday-Saturday)
We will let grown-ups know if your child is receiving an award or will be having their birthday candles, but you are welcome to come on any of these days, whether your child will be at the front or not.
Once per half term, usually on the last Wednesday, we hold our ‘Let Your Light Shine’ worship, where children are invited to bring any badges, medals, certificates etc from clubs outside of school to show their achievements to the whole school. Grown-ups are also welcome to join us for this worship.
If you would like to join our worship, please come into school through the external hall doors accessible from the staff car park off Heath Road South. We ask you to sign into school so we know how many people we have on site. There are chairs at the back of the hall for grown-ups visiting us.
Please note: we do not allow photography or videos during worship, but if your child is being celebrated, we will send them to you at the end to have a hug and you may then take an individual photo.
As a whole school we also visit St Laurence Church, Northfield, to hold celebrations of some of the main Christian festivals. We are very grateful for families who can help us walk to church and back and join our service there.
For more information, see our Collective Worship Policy on our Policies and Documents page, and our Religious Education Policy on our Curriculum page.
Children and parents in Collective Worship.
Enjoying the actions to Our God is a Good God.
Religious Education
Our Religious Education is mostly Christian with links made to other world faiths to develop understanding and respect.
As a Rights Respecting School, our RE curriculum enables our children as right holders to learn how to share and respect other children’s views. As well as to have the freedom to believe and think what they want. As with our whole curriculum in school, our learning in RE helps children to develop our five core characteristics, which lay the foundations for them to be lifelong learners and good global citizens.
Our Religious Education lessons help children to acquire knowledge and understanding of religious traditions and beliefs but also to develop the child’s Everyone to learn and grow with God spiritual awareness. Each lesson includes an opportunity for spiritual reflection. During a typical RE lesson, the children will explore a range of activities providing challenge and the chance to learn from RE for themselves. The children will explore ways of responding to Christianity and other religions and life experiences, for example, through prayer, worship, drama and art. A variety of resources including artefacts, games, role play, puzzles, books, posters, resource packs and a selection of children’s Bibles are available to support creative learning and teaching. There are educational visits to support the RE curriculum which have previously included visits to St Laurence Church, a mosque, St John’s and St Peter’s Parish Church, and a synagogue.
Our children told us that they love RE because it is fun to learn about Christianity and other faiths. They told us that they feel it is important because they can learn what other people believe. They said that in RE they get to create and discover things and try different food for celebrations. They spoke about enjoying going on trips to discover how other people celebrate.
Parents have the right to withdraw their child from all or part of the Religious Education and Collective Worship provided. The Headteacher must be informed if parents wish to exercise this right. Alternative provision can be arranged for children at these times.
For more information, see our Religious Education curriculum Overview on our Curriculum page.
Spirituality
“Spirituality is a way of seeing, connecting with and giving meaning to life beyond the day to day”
We explore spirituality from a Christian understanding that everyone and everything is a valued creation, individually and uniquely made by God. At St Laurence Church Infant School, we seek opportunity to develop our sense and understanding of spirituality through exploration aspects of life, which are beyond tangible creation and provide a sense of awe and wonder.
We believe that spiritual development is a fundamental aspect of children’s personal progress. Spirituality is not the same as having a religion or faith; a person can be spiritual without having a particular faith. We work to enable children to develop holistically in order that they become happy, fulfilled, spiritually aware, and socially and emotionally engaged.
Spirituality is not something that you can hold, but something that you experience. There are three stages to the spiritual process: Encounter – Refelection – Transformation, therefore we often use ‘windows, mirrors and doors’ to structure questions which promote children to enage in spiritual thought. We look out into the world, reflect on ourselves and think about how we can follow Jesus’ instruction in the story of the Good Samaritan to “go and do likewise”:
Windows: Giving children opportunities to become aware of the world in new ways. Learning about life in all its fullness. This includes both the things that amaze them and also challenge them.
Mirrors: Giving pupils opportunities to reflect upon their experiences. To meditate on life’s big questions and to consider some possible answers. Learning from life, by exploring their own insights and perspectives and those of others.
Doors: Giving pupils opportunities to respond, to do something creative in order to express, apply and further develop their thoughts and convictions. Learning to live by putting into action their beliefs and values.
Opportunities for spiritual development present themselves all around us. Our role, as adults is to shine a light on these opportunities in order to engage children in spiritual moments. At St Laurence Church Infant School, we actively encourage children to pause, be still and reflect carefully about the world around them and their own role within it. Within collective worship; planned through our broad, balanced and engaging curriculum; as well as spontaneous ‘pause for thought’ moments, we present examples of inspirational figures, stories and events; reflect on the beauty and joy of the world around us; and learn to empathise and have compassion in moments of disappointment or pain.