Collective Worship

Collective Worship helps children to recognise the presence of God in their lives, and to reflect on current affairs and social and moral issues in our world. As a school, we use resources from Ten:Ten to help structure our collective worship in line with the liturgical calendar of the church.

In a typical week, children will experience:

Whole School Liturgy

Tuesday begins with a whole-school liturgy, which is usually based on Sunday’s Gospel, or a theme of importance in the Church’s year (for example, CAFOD Harvest Fast Day).

Come and Praise

On Wednesday, the school celebrates with hymns and worship music in a celebration called ‘Come and Praise’. We recognise that music is a style of worship which our children enjoy – to sing is to praise God twice as much!

Mass

Wednesday provides children with an opportunity to attend Mass. We celebrate Masses with the whole school, with individual classes and with houses. House Masses provide children with the opportunity to attend Mass with their siblings.

Class Worships

Classes have time to worship together each week in a variety of ways. These include liturgical prayers, prayer journaling, Lectio Divina and guided mediation. We believe that it is important for children to experience a range of styles of prayer, as everyone is unique in their engagement with prayer.

Celebrating Achievement

Each Friday the school comes together for a Celebration Assembly, which is a time to celebrate the achievements of the children and the staff across the school. In the Bible, we are told that we are all one body and one spirit, with many parts – we feel it is important to encourage children to celebrate others because of this. At the end of the week, classes hold a short reflection on what they would like to thank God for this week.

By offering a range of worship styles, we hope that children will find a style of prayer that they find meaningful and be able to use this in their life after their time at St Gabriel’s.