The Collective Worship Crew

 

Pupils who help to support the delivery of acts of worship are known in our school as ‘The Collective Worship Crew’.  These pupils help to set up the worship hall by creating a calm environment and they choose hymns, select or write prayers. Towards the end of the half term they then plan, write and deliver their own act of worship as a group to the whole school.

Our most recent Collective Worship Crew presented their service with the theme of ‘Perseverance’. They asked to pupils to define the word and they gave different ways of experiencing it in everyday life through an acrostic poem. They told the story of Walt Disney and his journey to success and made links with stories in the Bible. They finished with a video story about perseverance which the pupils had made and the pupils contributing their own examples of when they have had to persevere.

 

Here are the pupils’ comments:

“It made me think that I should always persevere with anything that comes.”

“I liked the video showing them trying to build  a tower and it kept falling down.”

“As I came out I felt excited for the future because I am always going to persevere.”

“The video taught me that however long it takes, don’t give up.”

“Perseverance is an important Christian Value because you should always be doing it and try and try again.”

“It made me want to persevere with riding my bike.”

“I know that people enjoyed it because children were listening and laughing.”

“Lots of people put their hands up to answer the questions.”

It was so exciting to welcome so many parents to our service today, led by Topaz class at St. Lawrence Church. The pupils gave examples of when they had shown courage in a variety of circumstances at home and at school. In fact many had commented on how nervous they were about presenting their service to both parents and pupils. They really did show great courage throughout and acted out the story of  David and Goliath beautifully. The service closed with a prayer created by the children and  a well chosen song,  'We will find a way' by Fischy music.

The first service of the year helped the children to fully understand the Christian Value of 'Perseverance'.  The children were invited to give their interpretation of 'Running the race of life' and the theme was explored further through an acrostic poem. The children discussed which phrase from the poem explained the true meaning of perseverance to them and why. The service closed with a prayer and the song 'We're on this road'.

Our Christingle service took place on the last day of term and was led by Sapphire and Emerald classes and Mrs Holmes was presented with some flowers to mark her departure. The Christmas story was told, and songs illustrating  the narrative were sung by each class. The  symbolism of the Christingle was interwoven throughout. Our whole school family was captivated by the reflective and joyful atmoshere of the service. 

Harvest in St. Lawrence Church

The focus for the harvest service was sharing what we have got with others. Each class had their own role to play, with Amethyst telling the story of the Little Red Hen and Sapphire talking about the importance of bread. Emerald presented the work of  Food Banks and illustrated this with the  story of Elijah, and Topaz ended the service with their messages of thanks for the foods we harvest and share. Beautiful songs linked the service together and the choir excelled themselves with 'Harvest Moon.' To emphasise the theme of sharing the pupils, their parents, special volunteers and governors worked together to make some soup from donated vegetables as part of the 'Big Soup Share.'  Everyone enjoyed a cup of soup and roll of bread and there was even some left over for people to take away. The Chesterfield Food Bank also collected over 35 kg of food to distribute, from generous donations from parents. Thank you to everyone for your support in making this a successful service with the care of others at the heart of it all.

We would like to say a very big 'Thank you' to the Crackpot Company for joining us to illustrate God's plan to send Jesus to be our Rescuer and Saviour because of His love for everyone of us. The pupils were highly engaged with the puppets, acting and narration. We finished a prayer and an an energising rendition of Whoopah Wahey!

Sapphire opened their worship with the song 'Build up'. A great introduction to the theme of 'Perseverance'. They used St.Paul's verse about life being like a race to illustrate the importance of working hard at something to achieve a desired goal.The pupils researched the struggles of well known high achieving  athletes, emphasising that not everyone has immediate success. Some pupils described their own experiences of persevering and the service closed with this prayer.

Dear God,

Thank you that you promise to always be by our side every day.

Please help me to persevere when I am stuck and feel like giving up.

Help me to keep my eyes fixed on you, so that I can follow your example and help and guide anyone who might need my help.

Amen.

Father Peter gave the children a warm welcome back to school after the summer holidays. The Christian value of 'Thankfulness' was explored in relation to many different areas of the children's lives, with the children making interesting contributions. The service closed with a prayer and the song 'Welcome Everybody.'

Amethyst Class in Church

 

Service was the theme of today's worship  in St. Lawrence Church for our families. The pupils from Amethyst class prepared a service to explain the meaning of this important Christian value in their own lives. They chose to retell the story of Jesus washing the feet of the disciples to illustrate how important it is to put others before ourselves, and to encourage us all to follow His example. The worship closed with a prayer written by the children and the song 'I can make a difference.'

A short time ago, some of our Y6 pupils informed the school about International Toilet Day and a charity called Toilet Twinning, whose aim is to provide a basic toilet, access to clean water and to teach  hygiene in countries where there is a lack of safe facilities. 

We are delighted to announce that the children have raised enough money to fund 2 toilets through Children in Need and our Enterprise afternoon. We have received our certificates, complete with colour photos of the  toilets, and the GPS coordinates, so we can look up our twin’s location on Google Maps.

What a fantastic achievement to be able to help so many people in this way.