At St Bede’s Voluntary Academy, we place Christ at the centre of what we do. This means we are committed to educating the whole child to reach their potential, encouraged by the words in John’s Gospel: “I have come that you may have life and have it to the full”.
Acts of Worship
Prayer, worship and reflection are woven into the fabric of our school community because they are integral to the Catholic faith. Opportunities for worship have therefore become discrete parts of the school day but we welcome extempore worship too. Students and staff have opportunities to experience a variety of worship formats: for prayer and reflection, both privately and collectively, assemblies and liturgies within the context of the teachings of the Catholic Church, values and our shared ethos. We invite all of our wider school community to join us in any acts of worship.
Within the Diocese of Nottingham, it is our mission to help each person to “encounter God’s personal love for them” and this will be partly achieved through our acts of worship. Students will be provided opportunities to plan, prepare and deliver acts of worship so that they can “discover and grow in their personal relationship with Jesus Christ as his disciples”. They will also be encouraged to “open [up] to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in their lives so that they reach out to others with God’s love” by being involved in physical acts of worship through mission and evangelism.
It is our mission as educators within the Catholic sector to acknowledge that this may be the first and only experience of worship. The dynamics of our students will have other faith backgrounds or identify without a religion. For these reasons, it is paramount Acts of Worship are afforded at least the same merit as curriculum time.
Our daily Acts of Collective Worship take place at the start of tutor time. We follow the Extra-ordo-nary Word of the Week provided by the Briars team at NDYCS and supplement this with our own discussions, prayers and activities to help students bear witness to the focus of the week and so, provide concrete examples of how to live out our faith.
Our students prepare a focus table to indicate that we are joining and celebrating an Act of Worship. These are adorned with liturgical cloth to indicate the season, a candle to let the light of the world in, our scrapbook offerings, and other religious artefacts that are personal to that tutor group. Our students are responsible for setting and preparing this as an act of service.
