Collective Worship

Collective Worship (assembly) takes place every day in school and this lies at the heart of life in our school. We meet four times a week as a school community and have class based worship on Thursdays. Reverend Felicity Couch leads Collective Worship each Tuesday. Collective Worship themes are largely Christian in nature and include stories, drama, music, singing, poetry, reflection and prayer. We encourage our pupils to be part of our Collective Worship through planning, meeting with Revd Felicity, reading and writing prayers and playing music. We follow the pattern of the festivals and seasons of the Christian Year. On Mondays we usually hold choral worship. Singing is an important part of collective worship, and this is a chance to learn new songs, and revisit familiar ones, to reflect together on the way that we praise God in worship, and to understand better the words we are singing. On Wednesday we usually celebrate what has been achieved in school (such as an announcement of the House Points totals for the week; a chance to celebrate and share the reasons for those children who have been awarded a Head Teacher Award, awarding of certificates for honors each term-sporting for example) and the half termly announcement of our music “Hollands Cup”. The Thursday collective worship is class based. On Friday, collective worship is usually a Key Stage led collective worship following the theme of the week, listening to a story from the Bible or considering a particular charity. Assemblies also provide opportunities for school news to be shared and discussed. Each school term concludes with a service in the church.

School Prayer

We start each Collective Worship with a lighting prayer and are currently working closely with our children to write a Petersfield prayer, which reflects our thoughts and values.

Church Links

Petersfield Church of England (A) School has strong links with St Andrew's Church, Orwell (pictured above), which falls within the Diocese of Ely. We work closely with the church and diocese in a number of ways, including:

Petersfield Church of England (A) Primary School Christian Values

We are proud of our school values and these underpin all we do in school. Our pupils demonstrate these values in all areas of school life. We worked together as a school to revise our school Christian values. All the children in school looked at eighteen different values and reflected on the meaning of each value and how they influence our behaviour. This work culminated in a whole school Christian values day. The children worked in buddy groups during the day so that the older children could support the younger ones and each group presented that value through dance, drama, poetry, artwork, etc to the whole school community. At the end of the day each adult and child in school cast three votes for the values that they felt were the most important in the life of our school. The values with the most votes became our new school values.

Love - Christian love is the overarching value in our school. We have an ethos of care and concern that helps us to support one another. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7. Love is integral in all our decision-making. This equips our children for all aspects in life, as they grow and reach their full potential.

Friendship - we aim to include everyone and be loyal and supportive friends. Luke 6:31. We constantly strive to build and foster the positive relationships so providing a safe and caring environment in which to learn.

Trust - we trust each other and believe in the honesty and reliability of others. Isaiah 26:4. Trust encourages the whole school to work together for the mutual benefit of all, promoting an excellent working relationship

Creativity - we value and celebrate new ideas and ways to express ourselves. Romans 12:6. Each one of us has a unique talent, we all have inherent creativity, and we actively encourage this in all aspects of school life.

Peace - we aim for inner peace; learning how to be calm and contented, coping with anxieties and fears, and also for peace between each other in school; making and keeping friends, sorting out arguments, making compromises, letting go of hostile feelings and learning how to listen to each other. Thessalonians 5:13. Peace helps us to respect each other, recognising all opinions to provide a safe and inclusive learning environment that encourages discussion of all ideas, so promoting a deeper understanding of each other and the wider world.