Whole School Collective Worship - more than just an assembly

Every Friday we gather together as a school community to celebrate the Good News of the Gospel. Since September 2022 an increasing number of parents regularly gather with our children. Our Friday collective worship follows a familiar format each week. 

The children will open the Worship with an opening prayer; this is then followed by the Sunday's Gospel which is read by either children in school, a member of staff or parent. Mr Lawman will explain the Gospel to the children who will follow this up with their own bidding prayers and song led by Mr Holden. 

The children receive their certificates given out to children for either their hard work, or being kind. These awards are based upon our Mission Statement: 'Love God, Work Hard, Be Kind'. The children then  bring their 'shinie's' up to the altar. Shinie's are given to children who show kindness or hard work throughout the week. On Friday they offer up these good deeds to God.

Finally our Worship closes with a blessing from Fr Simon. Fr Simon will often bring something from Church to share with the children. Over the course of the year, the children have become more and more familiar with the correct responses.

Class Collective Worship

We are really proud of collective worship in our school. After the pandemic we knew that something was missing. The fact that for so many months we could not come together as a community to share our faith, left us appreciating, more than ever, how important these moments are.

Occasionally we invite other people to take part. It could be Mr Lawman or Mrs Malcolm. We now even invite our parents to come and see this sacred part of our day. 

Each day starts with an act of worship. This is more than a prayer. In silence the children will gather to bear witness to their faith. There is music, an altar and moments of quiet reflection. No one can enter to the room when collective worship is taking place - the start of the day really is sacred.  And it happens everyday, without fail.

Worship within our Parish

The children of St Catherine's live in either the parish of St Catherine's or St Mary's in Leyland. As a result, many of our families play an active role in either parish.

Fr Simon is our parish priest and he comes to see us a lot. Fr Simon is in school every Friday for our school collective worship. He leads the final blessing and will often bring something from church. Fr Simon also comes to see us in class. Last Year Fr Simon came to talk to the children in Year 4 about vocations and the sacraments, he has even spoke to some children in Year 6 about Victorian architecture! 

We visit St Catherine's too. Some children in our school go to St Catherine's on a Sunday, some go to St Mary's, some don't go to church at all. Fr Simon thought it would be nice if we visited St Catherine's and learnt about the different parts of the church. Year 5 and Year 6 have already been to visit.

Every year we have Masses as a school. We have a Mass to say goodbye to our Year 6 children, Year 5 also go to the Cathedral in Liverpool to meet the Bishop. At Christmas and Easter classes lead the Worship at St Mary's; we only go there because it's much bigger than St Catherine's.

Fr Simon does a lot in our school. At the start of Lent he gives out ashes and we even had our throats blessed in the feast day of St Blaize!

Fr Simon also comes to visit us to share in the joyous moments in school. He came and had an ice-cream with us after Ofsted had been and last year he even beat Mr Lawman in the egg and spoon race at sports day.

We play our part in the parish too. We have children who are altar servers at both St Mary's and St Catherine's. We have children who have read in Mass and we also have children who have led the celebration; for example the Feast of Our Lady in May or the Passion on Palm Sunday.