Our St. Mary’s church family
This is our church, St. Mary’s, Newchurch-in-Pendle. We are very proud of our connection with the church and the people who serve there. At Christmas, Easter, Education Sunday and at harvest time we gather there with the St. Mary’s family to worship together. We also worship in church once every half term on a school day.
Our vicar Reverend Nick, visits school at least weekly to deliver a whole school collective worship. Both children and staff look forward to Reverend Nick's visits, as he brings Bible stories to life with his fun and inclusive worships.
Collective Worship
Every day, as a school or as a class, we gather together to worship. We are very proud that our children enjoy worship which takes place every day either in the hall or in the classrooms. We light a candle as part of our opening for worship, the children listen to Bible stories and sometimes act them out, sing hymns together and have reflection time.
This year, we have been taking part in the Diocese of Blackburn's '2025 Year of Prayer for Growth and Renewal' which has provided us with engaging and fun ideas to develop and embed a culture of prayer in the lives of the children, staff and parents in our school community. We have also been following the 'worship together' series which follows the church year through Bible stories and teaches the children where they relate in God's Big Story as disciples of Jesus.
Our Friday afternoon celebration worships, to which all families are invited, are an opportunity to tell our children how fabulous they are! Stars of the Week certificates are awarded, team points from the week are collated. Each team has a Wizard of the Week (WOW) for both the Infant and Junior class who are presented with a medal to wear and also the winning team is announced. Out of school awards and achievements are celebrated too.
Every half-term we choose one of the Fruits of the Spirit to focus on. Families are involved in encouraging our children to live by the fruits of the spirit, which are gentleness, goodness, self-control, love, patience, kindness, peace, joy and faithfulness (Galatians 5:22-23). Parents can award their children a certificate when their children have shown this value in their everyday life and the certificate will be given out in collective worship. They are displayed on the collective worship board in the hall for everybody to celebrate how our children show the fruits of the spirit in their home and school life.
Personal Prayer and Reflection
We wish to encourage our children, staff and visitors to spend time during the day to reflect on their friendship with God. To promote this, we have areas around the school where prayer and reflection can take place. These can be found in classrooms, in the yard and in the entrance hall. Each area provides different items or ideas for reflecting and praying; some have prayer stones, Bibles, words to think about and sensory items.
