Prayer and Liturgy

Collective acts of worship for the whole school take place every week and key phase group worship takes place every alternate week. The pupils themselves, led by our Young Missionaries, lead collective worship in individual classes on the remaining two days.

Year 4 led the whole school in an assembly about Palm Sunday

 Prayer and worship are central  to the daily life of our school. Through prayer, both traditional and informal, and liturgies children receive direct teaching of the faith. We provide opportunities for children's spiritual growth and development through participation in a variety of forms of worship and through experiencing all forms of prayer: formal, informal, spontaneous, private, shared, petitionary and meditative. In this way we aim to help the children to come to value and respect the power of prayer and its place in their relationship with God.

 Adoration and Benediction at Our Lady of Victories Church

 

Crowning of Our Lady Assembly led by Year 3

Statues or crucifixes and other icons are present in every room in the school, highlighting our belief that everything that we do at our school is founded on our Catholic faith. We have a small chapel, a place where small groups can pray, as well as being a  repository for books and icons used in worship and scripture stories.

The school chapel

Displays of work in RE are of very high quality and can be seen in classrooms and all around the school, including the school's main reception area. Each class has a prayer focus area, with a liturgical cloth in the appropriate colour to match the liturgical seasons.

The key events of the liturgical year are celebrated in many forms such as whole school Masses, Christmas Carol Services, Nativity performances, Lenten liturgies,  including Reconciliation, St. Matthew's Passion Performance by the  choir, feast day celebrations, the Rosary and Stations of the  Cross.

Pupils are actively involved in planning and leading worship, both in class groups and whole school settings. Shared acts of worship take place in an atmosphere of reflection and stillness, where we encourage each other to listen to God speaking to us and to respond. Children are encouraged to write prayers, a skill which we explicitly teach, just as we teach other genres in literacy.

An active and enthusiastic pupil chaplaincy group, called the Young Missionaries use a prayer toolkit to help them to prepare liturgical worship, which they lead in classes throughout the school.  The school is well resourced with items which children can use as a prayer focus during worship.

We participate in liturgies, events and Masses as part of the wider Catholic community, such as diocesan events at Westminster Cathedral.

Our Prayer and Liturgy Policy can be found here