‘Collective Worship in a Church school should enable every child and adult to flourish and to live ‘life in all its fullness’. (John 10:10).  It will help educate for wisdom, knowledge and skills, hope and aspiration, dignity and respect, and developing community and understanding of living well together.

At Hucknall National, worship is central to the life of school and is the main platform for exploring the school’s vision. It is well planned and of high quality so that the whole school community is engaged on a journey of discovery, exploring the teachings of Jesus and the Bible.

At Hucknall National collective worship aims to be inspirational, invitational and inclusive and will lead people to a threshold where they can witness worship and join in, if they wish.  Through Collective Worship, everyone is offered a space and a place for the telling of the Christian story. They are offered an understanding of worship through being invited to participate in or observe prayer, reading and reflection on the Bible, liturgy, sacrament and experience of the musical and other imaginative riches of Christianity. Opportunities to reflect on the beauty, joy and pain of the world is given. Our community is given time to consider their responsibilities to others and to grow in love and service. Time is given for celebration, both for the accomplishments of school members and to mark the seasonal festivals of the Christian calendar. A time to be able to contemplate and develop spiritually is given. 

Collective worship in our school provides an opportunity for our whole community:

• To experience and respond to the presence, power and peace of God
• To inspire beauty, awe and wonder, deepening our appreciation of the gift of the natural world and the importance of acting responsibly toward the environment as stewards of God’s creation.
• To explore Christian values and beliefs by learning from the Bible
• To contemplate something of the mystery of God, reflecting on the puzzling questions that life poses
• To reflect on spiritual and moral issues and be given the opportunity for deeper Spiritual Encounters - having time to ‘Pause, Live and Reflect’
• To explore our own beliefs and encourage respect of other people’s religious beliefs and practices.
• To cultivate a common ethos with shared values, developing a sense of belonging to a community where the Christian values of Thankfulness, Trust, Love, Hope, Forgiveness and Respect underpin our vision, policies, curriculum and moral code
• To develop a sense of self-worth and celebrate the gifts that every member of our community has as a unique child of God, made in His image.
• To learn Christian prayers and explore using prayer to communicate with God
• To enrich religious experience
• To grow in knowledge and understanding of Church of England practise
• To develop a spirit of courageous advocacy within the school community and wider world.

Worship Leaders

In KS1 and KS2, every class has a Worship Leader to represent them.  These children make decisions about how our worship is led and they lead every act of worship.  Some of our Worship Leaders attend the Diocesan Pupil Leader Conference each year to find out the latest advice and development for Worship Leaders.  These children are taking more responsibility for planning our worship this year and we are going to start working on the Worship Leaders Award.  As well as leading worship in our hall, our worship leaders have Class Worship time where they evaluate our worship with their class and discuss what we have been talking about in our Worship Leader monthly meetings.

Worship Leaders are central in the decision making about our Worship.  They helped us design our values pictures, wrote prayers for each value and they decided which songs we should be singing for each of our six values.

After School Worship

Every Tuesday after school our families are invited to attend After School Worship, which is led by our clergy team.  This is a growing group of families and we are so fortunate that we have such amazing support from our local church to provide this opportunity to worship as a family after school.

The Seasons of the Church - the Liturgical Year

In Christian churches one of four colours – purple, green, gold (or white) and red – referred to as ‘liturgical colours’, are used for altar linen, clergy robes and various hangings. At Hucknall National our worship table follows these colours.  Our children helped to design our covers and members of our local church made them for us.

The colour reflects the season, so that for instance in Advent purple is used, a colour of royalty because we are preparing to welcome the coming of a king. Purple is used again in Lent because it also symbolises suffering and pain.

At Christmas and Easter the colour changes to white or gold, both bright optimistic colours for festivals, times for joy and celebration.

Between the festivals green cloths symbolise all living things, renewal and promise of new life.

And finally, red is the colour of fire, used in churches to celebrate Pentecost and saints’ days.

Advent

The season of Advent marks the start of the Christian year. It is a season of expectation and preparation as the Church looks forward to celebrating the birth of Christ.

In England, Advent falls at the darkest time of the year, and the natural symbols of darkness and light are powerfully at work. Like many churches, we use an ‘Advent wreath’ of candles to mark the Sundays of Advent, lighting a new candle each week.

The first candle represents Hope, the second Peace, the third Love and the fourth Joy.  The final candle in the middle is lit on Christmas day to celebrate Jesus' birth.

Christmas

The celebration of Christ’s coming among us at Christmas (known as the ‘Incarnation’) is one of important parts of the Christian year, along with the story of Christ’s death and resurrection. Christmas is much more than the celebration of Jesus’s birth: it reminds us of the central truth that ‘the Word became flesh and dwelt among us’ (John 1.14).

Epiphany

The Feast of the Epiphany, which always falls on 6 January, marks the beginning of a season which recognizes Jesus to be the Son of God.

The word ‘epiphany’ means ‘manifestation’ or ‘appearance’, and the Feast of the Epiphany marks the recognition of the newborn Jesus by the world. The traditional service for this feast includes a procession of candles, and so it is often known as Candlemas.

Lent

Ash Wednesday marks the start of Lent, a season of self-examination, penitence, self-denial, study, and preparation for Easter. Lent is often described as lasting forty days (excluding Sundays) which recalls the Biblical account of Jesus’s temptation in the wilderness (Luke 4.1-13).

Ashes are an ancient sign of penitence. In school we have an Ash Wednesday Service where we can chose to have the sign of the cross marked on our forehead in ash. Lent is a time of preparation.

As Holy Week approaches, the atmosphere of the season darkens. Bible readings begin to anticipate the story of Christ’s suffering and death. Holy Week begins with Jesus' entry to Jerusalem.  In school we have our Easter Pilgrimage where we learn about the last week of Jesus' life.

Easter

Easter Day commemorates the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.  Traditionally, new fire is kindled and from this the Easter candle is lit and held aloft with the proclamation: ‘The light of Christ.’ This passing from darkness to light offers hope to all the faithful.  We call Easter 'Salvation' because Jesus came to save us from darkness and bring us into the light.

Ascension 

The ascension of Jesus is a day in the church calendar when Christians celebrate Jesus' ascension into Heaven. 

Pentecost

Pentecost takes place 50 days after Easter Sunday and celebrates the the Holy Spirit coming on the disciples empowering them for mission (Acts 2.1-47).

Ascension and Pentecost are closely linked. The Church is now to be the new body of Christ, filled with his life through the gift of the Holy Spirit.