Collective Worship
Collective Worship at Emmanuel Junior Academy
Our collective worship strengthens the community ethos of our school. It is carefully planned to ensure all pupils, regardless of religion or belief, can participate in an appropriate and meaningful way.
The aim of our collective worship is to:
- Make our vision and values explicit, enabling pupils to explore their own beliefs, identity and aspirations
- Promote respect for different beliefs, practices and values, and enable pupils to reflect on and evaluate their own views in relation to others
- Foster spiritual growth through opportunities for reflection, stillness and engagement with questions of meaning and purpose
- Develop a strong sense of community, belonging and citizenship, helping pupils understand their place within the school and wider world
- Encourage hope, aspiration, awe and wonder, and develop qualities such as empathy, compassion, wisdom and self-understanding
- Mark and celebrate key events, and provide comfort and support in times of joy and difficulty
- Provide opportunities to encounter Jesus Christ and engage with Christian faith and worship in meaningful ways
- Develop understanding of Christian beliefs, including the Trinity, and explore the teachings, traditions and practices of Christianity
- Enable pupils and adults to experience a variety of ways Christians worship, including prayer, silence, music, story and Anglican liturgical traditions
- Deepen understanding of the school’s Christian vision.
- Strengthen partnerships between school, church and home, supporting opportunities for shared spiritual development
- Ensure collective worship is inclusive, invitational and inspiring, in line with Church of England guidance.
All present (pupils, staff and visitors) should feel valued whatever their faith or beliefs with no assumption of a shared religious commitment. Collective worship will acknowledge and respect the responses of individual pupils and provide opportunities for them to express their feelings, delight at life, wonder and joy.
Inclusive, Invitational and Inspiring
• Inclusive – Our acts of worship recognise that pupils and staff come from homes of different faith backgrounds as well as no faith backgrounds, so it will be inclusive of, and fully accessible to all. Care will be taken to ensure that language used by those facilitating worship avoids assuming faith of those participating, listening or watching. For example, “Christians believe…” rather than “we believe”.
• Invitational – Our acts of worship will be consistently invitational. There is no compulsion. Rather, worship will provide the opportunity to engage whilst allowing the freedom of those of different faiths and those who profess no religious faith to be present and to engage with and treat others with integrity. Pupils and adults will only be invited to pray if they wish to do so and should be invited to pray in their own way. Prayer should always be accompanied by the option to reflect.
• Inspiring – Acts of Worship will be formational and transformational. By asking and discussing big questions about who we are and what we do in worship we hope to motivate pupils and adults into action or to think differently. There will be opportunities to think, reflect and ponder on their and the wider community’s behaviour and actions. Collective worship will inspire pupils to act and become courageous advocate of causes.
To read the full Collective Worship policy and procedures please click on the link below.
Collective Worship Policy
Collective Worship Calendar
Collective worship calendar Autumn 1
Collective worship calendar Spring 1
Collective worship calendar Summer 1
Collective worship calendar Autumn 2
Collective worship calendar Spring 2
Collective worship calendar Summer 2