SACRE Collective Worship Guidance

Draft Collective Worship policy

Background:

The 1988 Education Act requires that every school should provide a daily act of collective worship for all pupils. The majority of which each term should be “wholly or mainly of a broadly Christian character”. Collective worship should “reflect the broad traditions of Christian belief without being distinctive of any particular denomination.”

Collective worship is not the same as corporate worship. Corporate worship is the worship of people who have a common understanding of what worship includes and who share the same beliefs. A community school is not a worshipping community as the pupils who have a faith are diverse in what they believe, in what they believe God is and what they believe worship to that God or Gods should entail.

School Aims for Collective Worship / Rationale

You need to explain the value of collective worship in the school. The following 2 sections may be adapted for that purpose.

To be meaningful for pupils collective worship enables them to reflect on

• what it means to be a human being
  
• questions of meaning, purpose and value
  
• the best that human beings can be - inspirational, exemplars (people of faith or not) who have demonstrated through their actions, lives and qualities. Examples will come from religious and non-religious sources.
  
• personal beliefs and values

The collective worship that we deliver will recognise and value the cultural, linguistic and religious diversity of our school population and will be conducted within our Equal Opportunities policy.

How collective worship will enrich the experiences of pupils / Aims:

• enable pupils to reflect on and question issues such as belonging to the school community, the wider community and to humanity as a whole
  
• reinforce a sense of community and cohesion through appreciating those things we have in common
  
• develop a reflective approach to life
  
• support pupils in the development of spiritual, cultural and moral perspectives.
  
• develop a sense of the individual’s place in the world beyond the physical, material and the here and now
  
• provide time to consider values and beliefs - both their own and those of others
  
• raise awareness of difficulties experienced living a life based on values, beliefs and principles which may not be shared by everyone in the wider community
  
• provide opportunity to celebrate achievement and to share times of celebration
  
• support students in responding to crisis at a personal and collective level and provide them with a vocabulary to explore feelings and responses
  
• support those who have particular needs or who are engaged in times of crisis

Collective worship will reinforce the sense of the school community, by giving pupils the opportunity to share things of worth with each other, within a reflective space.

Those pupils who have a faith will be able to use the reflection time to consider issues in the light of their religious beliefs and to pray or worship internally as they feel appropriate whilst those pupils who don’t have a religious belief will have the opportunity to reflect and make a personal internalised response to the same stimulus. They will also be able to enter into dialogue with those of faith, enabling both believers and non-believers to appreciate each other's stances.

The language of invitation to reflect will be open and inclusive, ensuring that no pupil or adult present feels their beliefs have been compromised and ensuring that they are able to participate and grow spiritually.

Content

Examples from which the school may draw (please amend / add to describe your school's collective worship):

• marking the celebration of a broad range of religious and cultural festivals that reflect the diversity of faiths contained within the community
  
• examples of lives of people of faith and other good human beings
  
• stories supporting themes from a range of sources, including sacred texts, faith communities and secular books
  
• response to key local, national and international events
  
• providing an opportunity to think about their own beliefs whether religious or otherwise
  
• consideration of questions you wouldn’t think about elsewhere & #8211; not necessarily with easy / definitive answers
  
• putting things into practice & #8211; e.g., supporting charities
  
• providing a moment for silent reflection / prayer
  
• celebration of successes of members of the school community
  
• performances or presentations from members of the school community
  
• input from visiting speakers / experts

Organisation

Explain here:

• the structure of daily worship in your school and how these are linked together to themes (a timetable or diagram is helpful).
  
• the groupings for each day, who will lead each experience and where they will be situated.
  
• how you ensure no repetition / duplication within a theme
  
• how pupils and staff rights of withdrawal from collective worship are provided and managed
  
• how 'withdrawn' pupils are catered for during collective worship
  

Resources

What resources do you have?

e.g. books, focus artefacts, posters, music, people.

Explain here how you manage to ensure that visitors work within acceptable boundaries and do not use the time to proselytise

Where are these stored, how are they managed, how updated and what budget is allocated?

Planning and Monitoring

Explain here:

• who is responsible and how they undertake the responsibility
  
• how you monitor that the collective worship is of good quality and follows the law
  
• how you record and reuse useful information e.g. contact details for external speakers

Policy drafted:………/……/…………………

Agreed by Staff:………………………………

Agreed by Governors:………………………

Review date:………/……/…………………

Signed………………………………………………………………………