Collective Worship

At Thorverton C of E Primary School we hold a daily act of Collective Worship. We use our Collective Worship time as an opportunity to learn more about our School Christian Values and explore our own thoughts, and beliefs. All of our acts of Collective Worship are designed to help us think about the different ways that we can let our lights shine in our school and our community. 

• On Mondays, Mr Holding, our Head of School, leads Collective Worship.
• On Tuesdays we have Class Collective Worship, often based around the resource 'Picture News. Click here to find out more information.
• On Wednesdays, we have a Key Stage Collective Worship, where we can explore key themes in an age appropriate way with the younger and older groups of children.
• On Thursdays, we have a Singing Collective Worship, where we learn songs and sing together. These songs are often chosen by our JETs team and are linked to our School Christian Values and the Christian calendar.
• Fridays are for our Celebration Collective worship. We all gather together and teachers award certificates to children for their learning and for demonstrating our School Christian Values. We also celebrate achievements outside of school too! 

"Collective Worship is a time when we can all come together and reflect on the day. It is a really special time and we get to ask for help or say thank you."

"Our school values make our school special as they mean that everyone tries to be kind and treat others how they want to be treated."

 "We might not all be Christians but it is still valuable to learn about what Christians believe as it gives us a different perspective."

Feedback from our Collective Worship pupil conferencing in October 2024.

Church and Community Links

At Thorverton school, we are really proud of our links with the community and our wonderful local church, the Church of St Thomas of Canterbury (https://netherexe.org/thorverton/).

Here are some of the Church and Community projects and events that we have taken part recently.

Pop UK - Church schools transition day - July 2025

The Year 6 children at Brampford Speke, Silverton and Thorverton C of E Schools came together last week to take part in our Church Schools Transition Day. The children spent time reflecting on their time at primary school and looking ahead to secondary school with the team from Pop UK. The children learnt some songs linked to the themes of moving on and even got the chance to record these songs using professional recording equipment in the church at Brampford Speke! The day finished with a special service which parents and carers were invited to join.

 

Easter Service - Living Hope - April 2024

A huge thank you to everyone who attended our Easter Celebration on Friday morning at the church. Well done to the JETs who spoke and shared artwork and prayers and to all of the children for their fantastic singing. It was a real celebration of the hope that comes from the Easter Story and having lots of people their to share in the celebrations really made a difference to all of the children.

The service was the culmination of a series of Collective Worship sessions that have taken place this half-term, called the Living Hope series. The children were particularly excited to share the bread that they have made with friends and family, whilst reflecting on the sacrifice that Christians believe Jesus made at Easter.

Below is the artwork created by Rosie and Martha alongside the prayer that Rosie wrote for the celebration service too, which really highlights the importance of this time of year for so many people.

Dear God,

As we celebrate your miracle together, hear our prayer to you as one. Please help us to remember that light always seems brighter after the darkness, just like how, after Jesus’ sacrifice, there was his resurrection. Please help us to trust in you to always have a plan for us and to trust in others to help us find the way when things are rough. Thank you for giving your son to transform your world that we made imperfect by our sins.

We thank you now and always.

Amen

What a wonderful Easter Service, the children's engagement was so encouraging, they all spoke and sang incredibly well. The baking of bread and sharing a great idea- the inclusion and interaction just what Collective Worship is all about. Please thank the children and staff and Happy Easter to you all.  

Feedback from church member who attended the Easter service.

 

Christmas Celebrations - December 2024

Christmas Service

We had a fantastic Christmas Service at the church on Wednesday 14th December, where Class 1 treated us to a retelling of the nativity story and the other classes sang some beautiful hymns. It was a great opportunity to slow down, reflect and celebrate this wonderful time of year! A huge well done to all of the classes for their fabulous singing and to Class 1 for their acting and performing skills!

Christingle Service and Christmas Extravaganza

We held our school Christmas Christingle Service at the church. The children all made Christingles in the their classes at school at brought this along to the service. Reverend Tim spoke about the importance of the Christingle to Christians and what each element represented. We then lit the Christingles and had a period of quiet reflection. It was a lovely service and it was great to see so many parents, carers and family members join us.

The weekend following the Christingle saw the church host a Christmas Craft Extravaganza, where the children were invited to take part in a range of craft and art activities at the church, learn more about the Christmas story and have time to reflect on the true meaning of Christmas. A huge thank you to the church for organising this event - it was a brilliant way to end the autumn term.

Village Window Advent Calendar

We were really excited that this year the church organised a Thorverton Village Window Advent Calendar and we were asked to take part! A huge thankyou to our school JETs team – Emily C, Sufia, Evie, Daisy and Wren W for their hard work in designing and creating our wonderful window!

Participants were challenged to try and find the newly decorated window each day throughout advent and to stamp their Window Passports, which were available from the school office for a price of £1. The money raised went to the church to support them with the work they do in the local community.

 Thorverton Remembrance Service - November 2024

We held a special service at the War Memorial outside the church on Friday 11th December. Members of each class lay a wreath at the memorial and members of Class 4 read out the names of all the soldiers from the parish of Thorverton who bravely fought and tragically died in both the Great War and World War Two. We had two-minutes silence, punctuated with the playing of the Last Post and the reading of a poem by members of Class 4. A huge thank you to Alex Fice for making the school such an integral part of this service - we are really grateful for the opportunity to gather as a community and remember the tragedies of the past and to consider those around the world who are still affected by war today. 

 Harvest Celebrations - October 2024

To celebrate this year's Harvest, we held a service at the church. Each class shared some of the learning they had done this year around harvest and we spent lots of time thinking about all of the different reasons we have to be thankful! It was really great to see the church so full with friends and family - thank you to everyone who came along. As well as our Harvest Celebration Service, we also held a collection for CHAT, who run a local food bank, and Lucy's Larder, a Thorverton community food-sharing project based at the church. Thank you to everyone for their donations.