St. Ethelbert's CatholicPrayer and Worship
Please click the document below to read our Prayer and Liturgy Policy
Prayer and worship are central to the daily life of our school. Our children have every opportunity to pray collectively and individually, experiencing all forms of prayer in order to aid their spiritual development. We begin and end each day with prayer and pray before lunch; there are also opportunities for spontaneous prayer and for children to write their own prayers.
Each year group have a selection of prayers that they learn throughout the course of the year. By the end of their time at St. Ethelbert’s, all the children will have access to a wide range of Traditional Catholic Prayers.
Please see the overview below for the Prayers that are learnt in each year group.
St. Ethelbert’s Overview of Prayer
Celebration of the Word
At St. Ethelbert’s, Celebration of the Word takes place daily.
Gospel Celebration of the Word takes place every Monday morning where the Headteacher leads each phase through the weekend’s Gospel and sets them a weekly mission.
Child led Collective Worship takes place in class once a week. The children work together to plan and deliver personalised worship to their peers following the structure: Gather, Word, Response and Mission. In EYFS and KS1 this is led with adult guidance but in KS2, the children plan, prepare and lead the worship independently. Staff are always there to facilitate if necessary in order to fully develop our pupil's understanding of their faith.
Teacher led Celebration of the Word occurs every Wednesday and may focus on other religious festivals, events from around the world or Rights Respecting School Articles.
Sing and Praise takes place for KS1 and KS2 on a Thursday where they joyfully learn that “to sing is to pray twice” (St. Augustine). The children gather together to practise hymns and songs we use for our collective worship and Mass. We also take this opportunity to learn new sung Mass parts.
Whole School Celebration of the Word takes place every Friday, where we all gather to celebrate the achievements of the children for that week. Staff award certificates and highest Dojo winners in each class are calculated to see which House has received the most points. Every half term, staff award a CST certificate for an outstanding member of their class linked to a particular CST principle.
Mass is celebrated regularly, as a whole school, in phases and in year groups as well as at key times in the liturgical year including feast days and Holy Days of Obligation. These Masses are celebrated either in school or at Holy Redeemer Church when we join parish Masses. Children are fully involved in the Masses and take part by reading, singing and bringing up the symbols and Offertory gifts. Parents, family members, governors and local parishioners are welcomed to join us for these events.
Prayer Focus
Every classroom from Nursery to Year 6 has a prayer focus area as we believe prayer is the way we communicate with God. We need to pray to become closer to Him. These prayer tables focus on the liturgical colour and season so that all our pupils develop a clear understanding of the Liturgical Year. We also have other prayer areas around the school, both inside and outside, where pupils can participate in prayers led by staff e.g. Stations of the Cross, prayers led by their peers, e.g. in prayer club, or where they can pray spontaneously.
Our Liturgical Year
At St. Ethelbert's, our school calendar focuses around the liturgical year. We plan many prayer and liturgy events across the year, such as Masses and Celebrations of the Word which focus around the liturgical seasons. We celebrate Harvest and donate to Slough Foodbank, we pray the Rosary together in October, we celebrate special Remembrance events in November, remembering those who have given their lives for our country in war. We bless our class Advent Wreaths in our beautiful Advent Masses in preparation for Christmas. Our EYFS and KS1 pupils retell the Christmas story through Nativity productions and our Years 3 and 4 lead our school community, including parishioners, at our wonderful Carol Service at Holy Redeemer. The children make crowns for our Epiphany Celebration of the Word. We enjoy celebrating St. Ethelbert's Feast Day together on 25th February and singing our school song, which was written by our pupils! We prepare ourselves for Lent by writing Lenten Promises, going on a Stations of the Cross pilgrimage around the school and celebrating the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The children love taking part in our special Passion Celebration of the Word at Easter time and then joyfully remembering Pentecost. Youth Ministry pupils from St Joseph's Secondary School, Slough come to lead Celebrations of the Word for our pupils. It is lovely to welcome back past pupils as well as seeing peer on peer ministry in action.