Collective Worship Policy
Wallington County Grammar School

Philosophy
At Wallington County Grammar School we recognise that Collective Worship is an important opportunity to provide opportunities for our students Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural development.

Aims
It is our aim at Wallington County Grammar School that worship should:
•contribute to the spiritual, social, moral and cultural development of each
child.
•give expression to, and reaffirm and practise the values of the school
community
•allow reflection and response to the fundamental questions of life and those
things that are of eternal concern and value to human beings
•celebrate and give thanks for the achievements within the school, local and
international community and occasions of significance, including festivals.
•foster and enable a concern for the needs of others, a recognition of the
vulnerability of self and of others
•provide members of the school community with the opportunity to praise
and reach out to God.
•provide members of the school community with the opportunity respond to
Christian language and symbolism
•provide members of the school community with the opportunity to
experience a variety of forms of prayer and meditation. These might include
praise, seeking forgiveness, asking on behalf of self and others or quiet
reflection.
•to help students to begin to understand the nature and purpose of worship
•provide a foundation for a mature understanding and practice of worship in
the future.

Legal Status of Collective Worship
The 1988 Education Reform Act requires that ‘all pupils in attendance at a
maintained school shall on each day take part in an act of Collective Worship’. The
school accepts the desirability of this legislation but has considerable practical
difficulties in meeting this requirement. We seek to do our best to keep the spirit
of this legislation seeking to provide as many high quality acts of worship as is practically possible.

To provide students with variety in their experience of worship acts of worship may take the form of a whole school act of worship for all pupils or separate acts of worship for students in different age groups or school groups. Collective Worship may be held at any time during the school day.

The responsibility for arranging school worship in our school rests with the Headteacher who after consultation with the governing body has appointed the Deputy Headteacher with the responsibility for co-ordinating Collective Worship in the school.

All acts of worship are in accordance with the guidance issued in circular 1/94
which states that worship should be ‘wholly or mainly of a broadly Christian
character’ and not distinctive of any particular Christian denomination. By broadly

Christian in this school we mean that:
•Worship contains some elements which accord special status to Jesus, his
teachings and actions, e.g. The Sermon on the Mount.
•Sharing with students the Christian belief that all Christians are called to
continue Jesus’ work of love and compassion for their fellow human beings
through the exploration of key Christian concepts such as Love, trust,
forgiveness, mercy, humility, courage and integrity, respect for life, value
of an individual, justice, co-operation and service, honesty and truthfulness.

Acts of Collective Worship at Wallington County Grammar School take into account the student’s ages, aptitudes and family backgrounds.

The school recognises that there is a difference between Acts of Collective
Worship and the assembly of students. On some occasions assembly may precede or follow an Act of Collective Worship. When this happens the transition from Assembly to worship will be marked in some suitable way e.g. the lighting of a candle or reflecting on an image on the OHP, moments of silence and reflection etc

Rights of Withdrawal
At Wallington County Grammar School we seek to be an inclusive community however we respect the right of parents to withdraw their children from Collective Worship. This school expects that withdrawal will only be made following parental discussion with the Headteacher followed by written confirmation of withdrawal.
The school has a system of suitable supervision for students withdrawn from Acts of Collective Worship. However, no additional work is set or followed in this time.
All teachers, including the Headteacher, have the right of withdrawal from the
Act of Collective Worship, but the head teacher, should he or she wish to exercise this right, maintains statutory accountability for Acts of Collective Worship in Wallington County Grammar School.

Organisation
Monday/Tuesday – Whole school assemblies with half the school in each
Wednesday- Friday – a rota system of house assemblies, year assemblies and key stage assemblies are run. 
On those days when a tutor group is not in an Act of Collective Worship it is
assumed that the form tutor will develop /discuss the theme for the week with the tutor group allowing students the opportunity to reflect on the ideas he/she has heard that week.

Planning, Recording and Evaluation
Each week there is a theme for Collective worship. These are published at the
beginning of the term and a reminder is included in the weekly briefing.  It is
expected that those leading worship that week will relate their worship to this theme and that Tutors will re-enforce this in reflections in tutor time. The
themes chosen are broad enough to allow all those leading worship to approach the theme from their own perspective. This will mean that by the end of the week the students will have had the opportunity to reflect on the theme from a variety of
viewpoints.

Mr P. Huitson one of the schools foundation governors has a role monitoring
Collective worship at the school.

Adopted by the Full Governing Body, 22.3.10