Our identity as a Church of England Primary school is something which we value highly and there are many ways that we aim to engage pupils with their spirituality. We greatly value our historical and continuing connections with Saint Sebastian's Church Great Gonerby, and our local community. The following key Christian values underpin everything that we do here at Saint Sebastian's Church of England Primary School and often form the focus of our daily Collective Worship.

Aspiration

Creativeness

Courage

Friendship

Forgiveness

Perseverance

Truthfulness

Children are encouraged to live out these values in their own lives.

Our School Prayer

Our school prayer reflects our Christian values and is said daily in Collective Worship. The Faith Council held a competition for the children to write a new school prayer. There were ten competition winners and all have a line in the finished prayer.  It is also displayed around the school and children are encouraged to live out the school prayer in all of their interactions.

Dear God,

Thank you for our wonderful school and all the amazing and talented children inside of it. Help us to listen, learn, work hard and take pride in all that we do. We are grateful for everything you give us including books, games and things to help us achieve our best. Everybody is welcome in our school

Lord in your mercy,

Hear our prayer.

Help us to make the right decisions in everything we do. Guide us to help and respect everyone and everything. Remind us to give to charity and help those who are not as lucky as us. Please protect us and our loved ones. Help us to reflect on our day and remember that you are always here with us.

Lord in your mercy,

Hear our prayer.

Thank you for dreams, courage, wisdom, kindness and for wonderful friends who give us a smile. Our world is wonderful and we thank you for the animals, birds, bees, flowers and butterflies.

Lord in your mercy,

Hear our prayer.

You are the light in our lives, you are always there when we are sad and we will love you always as you love us.

You are amazing,

You are great,

You are everything.

Amen

Collective Worship

Collective Worship puts our Christian ethos at the very heart of what we do and who we are. It occurs at the same time every day and provides children and staff with the opportunity to reflect upon and engage with a Christian Value. Collective Worship is led by the head teacher, all members of teaching staff and regular visitors including the Bishop of Lincoln's Visitor. Collective Worship always includes opportunities for reflection, prayer, participation and worship through song. Each week includes one session that gives children the chance to worship solely through song. Our week ends with a 'Shine' Celebration Assembly in which those children who have demonstrated the key values, and are therefore role models, are recognised.

The focus for Collective Worship changes termly and  it is often the case that more than one value is reflected upon in the stories shared in Collective Worship.

Our Christian Values in Action

We offer a range of ways for children to engage with their spirituality this may be through:

Prayer

Prayer is an incredibly important element of life here at Saint Sebastian's Church of England Primary School. We use prayer every day during worship, through reflective spaces, before lunch and at home time. The children are also regularly involved in writing and sharing their own prayers during worship.

Personal Reflection

Each Collective Worship session includes the chance for children to reflect on Christian values and apply them to their own lives and experiences. Reflection areas can be found in each classroom and children are encouraged to engage with these spaces in any way that they find most comfortable.

Evaluating Worship

We regularly evaluate our worship and involve staff, governors and children in this evaluation process. Doing so helps us to monitor the quality, content and relevance of our Collective Worship.

Participating in Collective Worship

Children are actively encouraged to lead Collective Worship. 

Choral Worship

As a Church of England school, the tradition of worship through singing is incredibly important at our school.  Children are encouraged to sing with enthusiasm and learn or create actions to different hymns. We have a very active choir, who perform at school and national events and in our local community.

Charity & Our Role in the Community

Charity and fundraising is an important part of how we actively ‘do all of the good that we can’ and we often seek to raise money for local causes including the local community foodbank. The way in which we raise money is constantly reviewed and often planned by children through the Faith Council.

Mr Buckeridge - Collective Worship

Mr Buckeridge leading the school's collective worship and told a story about faith, trust and compassion.

Revd Kevin led our Collective Worship on

Friday 23^rd February 2024

Revd. Kevin led our collective worship and shared Aesop's fable 'The Lion and the Mouse' to link with Spring 2 term's value of Compassion.

Sam Ruddock Ambassador - Collective Worship

Thursday 14^th December 2023

Collective Worship with Michael Buckeridge

June 2023

Collective Worship - Wednesday 23rd November 2022

Reverend Sarah joined us today in our collective worship sharing a wonderful story about a young girl being visited by an angel. It was a lovely introduction to our upcoming season of advent. Thank you for our helpers acting out the story.

Open the Book Collective Worship in Church for Years 1 and 2 on Wednesday 2^nd November 2022

The children in years 1 and 2 were in church for ‘Open the Book’ collective worship to hear and watch a  group of volunteers present stories from the Bible.  They visit many schools and provide a variety of stories with a time for reflection and prayer. Some of the older children participated and there were some musical instruments for the children to play at given times during the story. The story was ‘The Storm on the Lake’ and thoroughly enjoyed by all.

We look forward to seeing them again next half term for another story.

Collective Worship 18^th September 2022

A huge welcome to the new priest in charge - one of her churches being St Sebastian’s here in Great Gonerby.

Reverend Sarah came in to do our collective worship today and shared a bit about herself and what her job involved. We look forward to seeing her every half term for collective worship and at our harvest service.