Prayer Life and Worship

As a Catholic school, one of our core purposes is to assist the Church’s mission to make Christ known to all people and proclaim the Good News. Through prayer, we aim to support our children to develop their own relationship with God. Prayer is an integral part of our daily life in school.

Why do we Pray?

It is good to have a real friend, someone who is always pleased to spend time with you, to hear what you have to say, to help with the things that matter to you. God is a friend like that.

Prayer is spending time with God, talking to him and listening to what he has to say to us.

How should we pray?

There are so many ways we can pray.

You can pray with others, on your own, out loud, quietly in your heart. You could use traditional prayers or spontaneous prayers.

It is important to be a role model to lead and encourage our children to pray in their own words, as well as introducing them gradually to the more formal prayers of our faith, such as the Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be, Grace before and after meals and the Sign of the Cross.

Reading Bible stories together and reflecting on the messages that God gives us through these is also really powerful and is what we regularly do in school during collective worships and RE lessons.

Sometimes prayer may involve thoughts, which are not said out loud. These moments can often occur unexpectedly and provide opportunities for quiet meditation on the mystery and wonder of God’s creation.

Where should we pray?

Anywhere!

The beauty of God’s creation is all around us. He speaks to us in many different ways.

In a quiet room, as part of a hug or story at bedtime, in the park, on a bench, playing together, on a car journey – all these locations and many others provide ideal situations in which we can value God’s love and trust in his care for us all. At school, we pray to God individually, as a class, as a year group and even as a whole school family.

Weekly prayer and liturgy

Together, with our children, we are open and responsive to God, Our Father.

The whole of creation is new to the children and their days are full of endless exploration, discovery, awe and wonder. As parents and teachers, we provide opportunities and time to reflect upon God’s love for all of us.

We celebrate and live out our faith every day by coming together to celebrate God's Word. The children have opportunities to worship God individually, as a class group, year group and whole school family. We join the parish for Mass on a regular basis.

The way we celebrate God's Word takes different forms during the week to provide a broad experience for the children.  The structure we after follow is:

Gather – we come together and get ready for our special time of prayer and worship together.

Word – we listen to the Word of God from scripture.

Respond to the Word – we reflect on the scripture.

Go Forth – we take what we have heard into our daily lives. We consider what we have learnt from the scripture and try to live this out in our words and actions.

Key Stage 2 year groups take it in turns to lead school Masses with the Parish to mark the start and end of the term, as well as Holy Days of Obligation with our Parish Priests. The children often write and read the bidding prayers, introduce the Mass, take up the offertory and lead an after communion reflection. The hymns and singing at Mass is enhanced by our Liturgy and Worship leader and the Liturgical Choir.

During the year, feast days, holy days and other liturgical events are celebrated and led by Key Stage 2 year groups, these include Harvest Festival, Advent Service, Stations of the Cross and our Marian Liturgy.