Dry Drayton Church of England School, Cambridgeshitre
New cloth for the worship table and a Christmas banner.
We began by working out what depth of banner would fit on the high wall in the hall. We used the bricks on the side wall to work out the measurement. Then we decided that we would like the whole banner to have a sunset scene across it. Scottie (a lady from the Village) brought lots of coloured materials for us to choose from. We agreed that each of us would have our favourite colour in the sunset. It was quite difficult to design the star, and agree on what size it should be. We all agreed that we would like strands of light coming out from the star. We experimented with the lengths and positions of the threads. We all agreed with this end result.
The thing we disagreed about most was the stable. We had different views about the size of the stable and the shape of the roof. We were finding it very difficult to come to a compromise which all of us agreed on. Mr Howard (from the Village Art Group) came in and helped us by drawing out some possible designs. We are all now very happy with the stable and the nativity scene.
It was difficult to choose the colours for the shepherds because we needed to make sure that each of the outlines stood out against the colours in the background. Scottie brought some sheepskin so that the sheep could look as realistic as possible.
We were going to have the 3 kings and their camels coming along the top of the hill, silhouetted against the sunset, but that would have made them really small. We had chosen 3 colours for each of the kings. It took us a while to work out where to position them, and what size they should be. Also we had to work out which colours would be seen against the background colours.
Elton Church of England School, Cambridgeshire
What do you do if the central focus of your collective worship wall is actually an interactive whiteboard? You enclose it in a superb cupboard! Here is a beautiful example from Elton where every child in the school created at least one of the tiles.
St Mary's Church of England School, Mildenhall, Suffolk
A group of St Mary's mums helped make this beautiful altar cloth to display at the front of the school hall during assemblies.
Each of the patches celebrates one key message about who Jesus is, and the RE subject leader has devised an accompanying lesson plan for each class to use in order to interpret the symbols. The school will also use the cloth as the focus for a series of acts of collective worship.
Dennington Church of England School, Suffolk
Denningon CEVC Primary wanted to buy a cross for their worship table but decided instead to explore with the children why a cross might be needed and used and then to challenge the children to design and make their own. Here are two of them.
Cross with jewels made by Katie: I made my cross for our school assemblies. I made it out of wood. I sanded it down so it was nice and smooth.
Cross with wool made by Tabitha: I made my cross with wool and threaded beads on the bit which I fastened the wood with. I cut and sanded the wood and decorated the bit of log with flowers. We use it in assembly.
All Saints Inter-Church School, March, Cambridgeshire
Individual panels painted by pupils have been brought together in this distinctive cloth for the collective worship table at All Saints School. The size of the cloth creates the effect of an altar at the front of the school hall, and this impression is added to by the use of a standing cross and candles. The link between the worship of the school and the church is made clear - and there is no doubt when you are in the hall that this is a time for worship.
Great Paxton C of E School, Cambridgeshire
At Great Paxton School collective worship begins with the greeting "The Lord be with you" , to which the assembly responds "And with your spirit". Nothing unusual about that you may think, but because this year the children are learning French, the greeting and response are being given in French!
The photographs show the brick roundel in the school's entrance hall which features a cross at its heart, and is here being used to display the words of the greeting and response. The natural objects balanced on the ledge are some of the items used to decorate the worship table in the hall.
The school is now thinking about taking the French theme further by looking for suitable chants from Taize to end their acts of worship.
St Martin at Shouldham C of E School, Shouldham, Norfolk
Instead of beginning an act of collective worship with a simple "good morning everyone" isn't it more appropriate to open with a Christian greeting and close the worship with an appropriate dismissal? Many schools in the area are now experimenting with using well known greetings and dismissals from the Church of England prayer book "Common Worship". Other schools are working with their parish to produce greetings suitable for use in school, or experimenting with simple musical chants such as those from Taize. Here at St Martin at Shouldham School the current greeting and dismissal are shared in a display on the focal wall. If you are interested in finding out more about using these kind of liturgical responses in worship, then contact your diocesan adviser - we have easy to use materials available to help you.
Earsham C of E School, Norfolk
This banner made by the headteacher as a focal point for collective worship. The school's small hall is also used for storage and teaching, so that there would be shelves of files facing children whichever way the hall was arranged for worship.
Aspects of the banner reflect the school so it is personalised to them. The writing is in accordance with the style taught in the school. The sweatshirts from lost property were used to create some of the uniform so that they were from the school. Most of the material was recycled. Although this is a small village school, with few members of diverse ethnic groups the headteacher wanted to reflect the nature of society at large, so the faces are varied, and were easily accessed as images by the children. Its purpose was to be child friendly.
Now the room is easily set up for worship by simply unrolling the banner, which is easily rolled up again later and out of the way of the other functions of the room. It does make the room now distinctive of the purpose it is being used for.