St. Cuthbert's Primary School Seaham
At St.Cuthbert’s our Catholic faith is central to the day-to-day life of our school and to all aspects of our curriculum which regularly features Mass and Collective Worship in all its forms. We place great importance upon living out the gospel values at all times as well as RE lessons, attending the celebration of Mass, acts of worship and assemblies. Our Catholic faith can be witnesses all around from the way we care and treat each other, songs and hymns we sing to focal points and displays around school celebrating our faith.
At the heart of our faith is the love of God and each other. Our children understand the taking part in collective worship on a daily basis brings them closer to God and strengthens their own faith and understanding of the gospel values.
We have very good links with the Parish of St.Cuthbert’s where the children enjoy taking part in worship alongside Parish Priest, Fr. Marc, Deacon Peter and the parishioners who are very keen to support the children of St.Cuthbert’s in understanding and following their faith.
Aims of Collective Worship
Collective worship at St.Cuthbert’s Catholic Primary aims to provide opportunities for all pupils and staff:
- To contemplate the mystery of God
- To reflect on spiritual and moral issues
- To explore personal beliefs
- To respond to and celebrate life
- To experience a sense of belonging and develop community spirit
- To develop a common ethos and shared values
- To enrich religious experience
- To grow in liturgical understanding and development
- To pray using prayers which are part of the Catholic tradition
- To reinforce positive attitudes
- To participate fully to all forms of prayer
- To take time out to “wonder at” “come to terms with” and to “give worth to”
Classroom focal points
Focal points in classes change with the liturgical seasons. Each focal point reflects a particular theme from RE lessons, from Ten:Ten or from events in the wider world which we reflect upon.
Evidencing our class collective worship
Each class plans, prepares and delivers collective worships weekly. The children help to plan and lead collective prayers in the classroom and evidence it in a floorbook. Our children at St.Cuthbert’s are proud of their collective prayers and speak confidently at what they have learnt from the scripture and what their mission is going forth. Children take pride in preparing the focal point for worship and actively try to fulfil the mission throughout the week. We encourage our collective worship to be creative and child-led and the children enjoy using a range of resources to draw their collective prayers from.
Whole school collective worships
At St.Cuthbert’s we enjoy the opportunity to come together and pray. Our children show reverence and respect throughout each gathering. Each week as a whole school we gather and follow the Ten:Ten weekly word where children are keen to volunteer to read and have an active role in the collective prayer. We also gather to sing hymns which the children understand is another form of prayer and celebration.
Mass at St.Cuthbert’s Parish
We are fortunate to be located close to our local Parish so the children can take part in Mass regularly along with family and parishioners. We attend Mass at least once a term as well as for feast days and key times in the liturgical year.
Exposition
When we were in the Year of the Eucharist and leading up to the feast of Corpus Christi we took part in an exposition led by Deacon Peter as way to reflect more closely on the significance of the Eucharist. We spent time in silent reflection, combined with words from Deacon Peter and reflective music. It was a fantastic experience for all our of year 6 children. We are grateful to Deacon Peter for once again going above and beyond to help our children not only to understand their faith but to deepen it. It is now something our upper KS2 children will take part in each year as a way to connect to God in their own way.
