Religious Education, Collective Worship, Spirituality and Our Faith

Religious Education

Religious Education at St Patrick’s Church of England Primary Academy

Within our RE teaching, we recognise the variety of religious and non-religious families from which our pupils come. We welcome and celebrate this diversity, are sensitive to the home background of each child, and work to ensure that all pupils feel and are included in our Religious Education. We recognise the importance of pupils’ all-round personal development, and the leading role that RE and our Christian Values play in contributing to the spiritual, moral, social and cultural elements, and how we live our Christian Vision.

The aims of Religious Education are to enable children to develop knowledge and understanding of Christianity, particularly as expressed in the Anglican church, and of other major religious traditions represented in this country, our local community and around the world. We aim to enable children to develop their understanding of, and respect for, different beliefs and traditions. We want our children to mature in their own beliefs, and to develop a sense of themselves as significant, unique and precious.

As well as RE teaching in classes, we have a variety of other practices in school which help develop the children’s spiritual, moral and cultural development, including whole school collective worship in church and in our school, class-based collective worship and individual reflection. We encourage all children to be active participants and a lead themselves, particularly with leading our prayers. There are also opportunities for reflection in each classroom and outdoors to enable children to have the space and opportunity to explore their spirituality, along with a prayer table for children to write a prayer should they wish.

God’s spirit is working amongst us and our Christian and Magnificent Seven values are at the core of all that we do here at St Patrick’s.

Collective Worship

We have a daily opportunity to join together to worship. Throughout the week there will be opportunities for whole school worship, class-based worship and individual reflection. We encourage the children to be active participants and take a lead themselves, particularly with prayer.

Every week our children attend church for collective worship led by Revd Denise Jones, and are actively included in the telling of the bible reflections and prayers. A selection of our collective worships can be viewed here.

There are opportunities for reflection in each classroom and outdoors to enable children the space and opportunity to explore their spirituality, along with a prayer table for children to write a prayer should they wish.

God's spirit is working amongst us and our Christian and Magnificent Seven values are at the core of all that we do here at St Patrick's.

Spirituality

Here at St Patrick's we recognise the importance of spiritual growth and development for our pupils, and therefore we are focused on ensuring:

Curriculum teaching and learning in order to promote resilience and support social and emotional learning.
Enabling student voices to influence decisions.
Staff development to support their own wellbeing as well as that of our pupils.
Identifying need and monitoring the impact of interventions.
Providing a variety of activities or strategies to nourish spirituality of our pupils including creative expression activities, free play, engagement with nature, forest school, mindfulness activities, relationship building and character development.
Working closely with parents and carers to ensure the wellbeing of all pupils.
Targeted support and appropriate referral with support from our senior leadership team and SENDCO team.
An ethos and environment that promotes respect and values diversity and inclusion for all.
Perhaps most importantly is having a leadership team that supports and champions efforts to promote emotional health and wellbeing.

It is important to recognise that spiritual growth comes in many shapes and forms, and it is our responsibilities as teachers to ensure we use all opportunities available to us, to give our pupils their best opportunities for growth. At St Patrick's we are so blessed to have an amazing outdoor space, and this is a huge asset for spiritual growth within our school.

Faith

St Patrick’s Church of England Primary Academy educates children from a variety of religious backgrounds in a multicultural and multiracial community. We work together to promote tolerance and respect for others and to break down prejudice.

The children are educated within the Christian values of the Church of England and in our collective worship we seek to proclaim that Jesus is Lord. All the major Christian festivals are celebrated, sometimes at school and on other occasions at St Patrick’s Church. It is hoped that parents will bring their children to join in worship at St Patrick’s Church at other times.

There is no intention to compromise or undermine the faith in which the children are being brought up. Our aim is to develop in all children an awareness, acceptance and appreciation of others through learning about each other's customs and beliefs.

We encourage parents to join us during our weekly Wednesday morning service at 9 am

https://www.stpatricksearlswood.org.uk/welcome

Prayer Life

Here at St Patrick's we have a strong prayer life, starting each new day with prayer, coming together to share grace before lunch, and then to share a closing prayer at the end of each day. Our prayers ask for God's love, God's strength and God's peace, that we may live our school vision and values each and every day, so that we ensure kindness, respect and enjoyment in all that we do.

Our children are also encouraged and welcomed to share prayer with us at the end of each Collective Worship in school, and it is wonderful to see that children from year 1 all the way through to year 6, want to stand up to say a prayer, and this reflects the confidence instilled in our children to be proud of their faith, and respect and support from their peers, to have the courage to stand up and share prayer.

Lunchtime Grace

Foundation Stage 1 and Year 1 - End of Day Prayer

Now the busy day is done, Jesus bless us every one.

Keep us safely through the night, until we see the morning light.

Amen.

Years 2 and 3 - Morning Prayer & Evening Prayer

Father in heaven, you love me. You're with me night and day.

I want to love you always, in all I do and say.

I'll try to please you Father, bless me through this day.

Amen.

Years 4 to 6 - Morning Prayer & Evening Prayer

God our Father we come to say, thank you for your love today.

Thank you for our families, and all the things you bring to me.

Guard me in the dark of night, and in the morning send your light.

Amen.

Whole School Blessing

At the beginning of each new school year, we will be sharing together in Collective Worship with Revd Denise Jones leading us in a whole school blessing, thanking God for the safe keeping of our children through the summer holidays, asking for his blessing for our children as they start a new year group with all the challenges that brings, and for the teachers as they prepare and start to help our children on the next stage of their journey through school. With God's blessings, our school remains a place of joy, happiness and peace, and a safe space for all children to learn, make friends, and share their school journey.