Worship Policy 2023

An Introduction to collective worship at St Luke’s CE Academy  

As a Church of England school, collective worship at St Luke’s is significantly viewed as the beating heart to our school life by giving life to all that we do. Collective worship is a sacred part of the school day when we gather as a united loving school family to worship and share a love of God and celebrate our achievements. Collective worship not only strengthens and supports the distinctive Christian identity of the school as a means by which the school’s Christian vision and Christian values are expressed, it also celebrates the significant role that each pupil and adult plays in our community.

Our daily Christian act of worship is central to our ethos and is supported by all staff, governors and our historical partnership with St Luke’s Church. It makes an important contribution to the overall spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of the whole school community.

Our daily act of collective worship is in accordance with the Trust Deed of our academy which requires worship to be consistent with the faith, principles and practices of the Church of England.

As such, our collective worship is distinctly Christian and displays a variety of traditions found in the Church of England. For example, we recognise and follow the Christian liturgical year displaying liturgical season colours on the Worship Table in the hall and on worship areas in each classroom.

Each adult and pupil will experience worship that is truly welcoming, inclusive and exemplifying the principles of Christian hospitality.

Collective worship therefore will be:

• Inclusive – Our acts of worship recognise that pupils and staff come from homes of different faith backgrounds as well as no faith backgrounds, so it will be inclusive of, and fully accessible to all. Care will be taken to ensure that language used by those facilitating worship avoids assuming faith of those participating, listening or watching.
• Invitational – In our acts of worship, there is no compulsion to ‘do anything.’ Rather, worship will provide the opportunity to engage whilst allowing the freedom of those of different faiths and those who profess no religious faith to be present and to engage with respect and integrity. Pupils and adults will only be invited to pray and sing if they wish to do so.
• Inspiring – By asking and discussing big questions about who we are and what we do in worship we hope to motivate pupils and adults into action. There will be opportunities to think, reflect and ponder on their and the wider community’s behaviour and actions.