Alexandra Primary School
Assemblies
At Alexandra Primary School we use our school assembly time in a number of ways. Assemblies provide time to inform children of important issues locally or nationally. It provides time to reflect our community values such as respect, kindness, compassion and tolerance. During this time school can reinforce our spiritual, moral, social and cultural teaching and develop themes taught in Personnel, Social and Health Education. It can also be a time for posing important questions and asking children to think about situations in different ways and from different viewpoints.
Time can also be used to develop further understanding of religions their traditions and special days.
Assemblies can be a time for celebration, celebrating individual, group or class achievements and successes. This can also involve inviting parents into class assemblies, providing an opportunity for children to present, act or perform, building upon skills of public speaking, confidence and resilience.
We use a range of resources to support assemblies, such as aseemblies.org and Simply Collective Worship. We plan out themes each term that include our APS values.
During assemblies there is often a moment of mindfulness or use of school breathe techniques to support calmness, listening and thoughtfulness. We also ask for the children to contribute their views and opinions.
Collective Acts of Worship
All maintained schools must provide daily collective worship for all registered pupils and promote their spiritual, moral and cultural development. The collective act of worship must be wholly or mainly of a broadly Christian character.
Collective Worship is defined at school as a time when the whole school, or groups within the school meet together in order to consider and reflect on common concerns, moral issues, traditions and customs and interests. It offers pupils an opportunity to come together and worship through engaging in relevant, meaningful experiences and provides opportunities to support the children’s ongoing spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.
At Alexandra Primary School, we apply for a Determination which allows us to have collective worship which reflects not only the Christian faith, but also the faiths and traditions of our wider school community. A Determination must be applied for via the Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education (SACRE) that operates in Hounslow and renewed every five years.
Collective Worship contributes to the school’s caring ethos and we aim that it is a time
when children can:
We intend that Collective Worship contributes to the development of the whole child by providing opportunities to:
