Alternative Collective worship during the School Closure

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Philippeans 4:6-7 

At this time, many children will be missing the familiar routines of school. One way in which we can help to keep that sense of normality is by offering these resources to you at home. Please note that these ideas are for you to use, adapt, or not use at all. You choose!

If there’s anything that you at home would appreciate having some materials on, then please do let us know and we will liaise with the diocese and see if we can put something together for you.

A message from Rev. Fi Gwynn

Hello to all the wonderful children and parents of Grayswood School,

I hope that you are all keeping safe and well and embracing the challenge of home schooling.  It's not easy on anyone - children, parents or teachers!  I am really missing seeing all your smiling faces on a Monday morning.

Whatever challenges and difficulties you are facing I want you to know that I am praying for you all.  If any of you, adults or children, want to get in touch either by email revfigwynn@gmail.com or on the phone 07769 856343 then please do not hesitate.

There are also a lot of wonderful resources on our church page - https://allsaintsgrayswood.org/children/ so do go online and have a look.

I am so looking forward to the time when we can be together again in the school hall - we will raise the roof with our singing at that first assembly!

With much love and prayers for you all.

Rev Fi

Prayer/ reflection activities at home to support families

Normally at this point of the year we would have another prayer space based on Easter. However why not do this at home?  I have attached a range of prayer space type activities which use a limited number of resources and should be things you have at home.  There are activities based on letting go of fears and worries, as well as activities to help us turn our attention to hopes and remembering to think of the things we are grateful for.  I will keep adding to these over the time we are away from school, with anything I find that I think would be useful. The children love prayer space at school – it’s a time for them to be peaceful, thoughtful and reflective.

You can create a special space to pray anywhere: outside with a hammock between two trees or perhaps a little tent with twinkly lights, or inside with a battery candle and some flowers.

A note for parents and carers about worship materials below

At school, your child will be used to taking part in collective worship every day (they might call it ‘assembly’).  This is not the kind of worship that some of you might be or have been part of in a religious building.  In church schools this collective worship is planned to be:

• Inclusive: something for children and teachers, of all faiths or of none to be able to join in with
• Inspirational: a time in the day to think about the big questions in our lives; an occasion that supports the school community’s spiritual development, creates an opportunity to gather around and reflect on a common theme and ‘feeds’ their inner being;
• Invitational: in school, children and teachers are invited to pray, think, or reflect, it is the child’s or teacher’s choice how they respond.

The home collective worship resources

The Diocese have written some materials for primary pupils to do at home, either with the adults in their house, their siblings or on their own.  Below we have attached a set of home assembly sessions, or you could call them ‘reflection’ sessions.  There is a lot of content in each one so you could do one of the sessions over a couple of days perhaps.   At school, our assemblies usually last about 15 minutes.  You might want to put in a 15 minute quiet time once a week to stop and spend some time reflecting on these ideas.  Or you could do this as a daily thing – spending 15 minutes on relaxation as a family.

We will keep adding more worship sessions for you at home, so keep checking the webpage. These are not dated, so you can select one of the titles and do it whenever you like. 

Faith At Home - Collective Worship for Primary Schools

Christian Aid 'Letters for Creation'

Here please find reflection or worship activities elow to introduce children to the concept of creation, the issues around climate justice and hopes for a better future. There is also an activity here where children have the opportunity to create their own 'letters for creation', reflecting on what caring for creation means to them. Selected letters will be curated into an exhibition that will be launched digitally later this year, followed by a travelling exhibition that we hope will tour a number of UK cathedrals, COP26 (the UN's climate change conference), and the Lambeth Conference in 2021. 

Mindfulness Activities and PSHE activities for home

Setting up your environment for worship/ reflection / prayer

At school, once a week, we have a class reflection time, also known as a class worship session, where we light a candle, turn off the lights and listen to some calm, relaxing music before discussing some of the themes and questions that have come up from the key stage assemblies.  You might want to create the same kind of quiet, peaceful environment at home with some of these things.

Singing at home

The children absolutely love singing at school in collective worship and their weekly singing assemblies on Thursdays.  Below are some free online sing a-longs, which you might all enjoy.

Out of the Ark At Home is the main resource we use for our singing assemblies, church services and songs during every day worship time.  The children love these songs.  Some are more values based and others are more faith based.  Out of the Ark have started a free site for home use during these difficult times.  Click the link to access the children’s favourite songs including ‘A Little Bit of Kindness’, ‘Together’, ‘Everywhere Around Me’, ‘Sing out an Easter Song’. They are uploading new songs each week so I am sure the children will love this – again a sense of normality and routine in the coming weeks for them.

Fischy Music Singing Assembly: This is a bit like Joe Wicks’ 30 minute PE sessions live every school day morning, Fischy Music are offering a free 25 minute singalong with dancing every Monday live at 11am. You can watch previous weeks' sessions on the website too.  Probably more for KS1 children.