Religious Education

Collective Worship

collective worship at whitefriars update march 23.pdf

The school aims to preserve and develop its religious character in accordance with the principles of the Church of England. Whitefriars aims to serve its community by providing an education of the highest quality within the context of Christian belief and practice. It encourages an understanding of the meaning and significance of faith, and promotes Christian values through the experience it offers to all its pupils.

The 1988 Education Reform Act requires that there be a daily act of collective worship for all pupils, which is of a wholly or mainly broadly Christian character. Collective worship takes place each day. Pupils are grouped in various ways - as a whole school, in Key Stages and sometimes in year or class groups.

As a rule, the act of worship usually takes place in one of the school halls but on certain occasions it can be held in other locations. An example of this is when our children, staff, parents and friends are invited to Lynn Minster and All Saints' churches to take part in special acts of worship. The worship is usually led by the Head Teacher and other teachers and there is also a weekly rota of visiting speakers from churches in the local community. 'Values for Life' are used as themes with the theme changing each half term. The timetable for these themes can be seen below:

	Autumn 1	Autumn 2	Spring 1	Spring 2	Summer 1	Summer 2
Year A: 2025/26	Trust	Justice	Thankfulness		Service	Truthfulness
Year B: 2023/24	Generosity	Compassion	Forgiveness		Friendship	Respect
Year C: 2024/25	Wisdom	Community	Hope		Perseverance	Joy

Other Values to be covered during Collective Worship:

Peace – Remembrance
Courage
Dignity

The value for this half term is RESPECT

Home School Values - RESPECT.

We have now introduced a range of books into our library to support our Value for Life. These are changed half termly/termly and help the children to consider our value in different ways.

Parents can exercise the right for their children’s withdrawal from worship on religious grounds.

Parents - you can find out more about how our Values are delivered and how you can support these at home using the links below...

Religious Education Quality Mark

We are very excited, following a thorough review, to have been awarded the silver RE quality mark (REQM).

The REQM recognises high quality RE, particularly those schools which are providing their learners with authentic experiences and contributing to whole school outcomes. It has four strands:

- Learners and Learning
- Teachers and Teaching
- Curriculum Subject leadership
- Continuing Professional Development

RE makes a powerful contribution to young people’s learning and is a very important part of our curriculum. It provides them with the chance to explore the big ideas of religion and belief and to think about what matters in their own lives.

The RE Quality Mark has two purposes: it recognises good practice in RE and also provides a powerful tool for development. Schools which have applied for the award have found that it affirms the work they are already doing, raises the profile of the subject and gives them ideas and confidence for developing their practice even further.

Our next aim is to achieve the gold mark!

http://www.allsaintskingslynn.org.uk/

http://www.stmargaretskingslynn.org.uk/

Our Statement of RE Entitlement can be found here

RE Curriculum

whitefriars church of england primary academy silver award certificate .pdf

Our Vision

Building the House on Rock

Whitefriars flourishes by encouraging ambition, growing resilience and making community.

In September 2019, we launched our new school vision: ‘Building the House on Rock’ based on the bible verse Matthew 7:24-27 “And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock..” Our vision is that all children at Whitefriars, as they move through our school, develop their character, which we define as a set of positive personal traits, dispositions and virtues that informs their motivation and guides their conduct so that they reflect wisely, learn eagerly, behave with integrity and cooperate consistently well with others. This gives pupils the qualities they need to flourish in our society

http://www.stmargaretskingslynn.org.uk/

http://www.allsaintskingslynn.org.uk/

Ethos Statement

Our purpose is to offer a broad and balanced education of the highest quality in a happy, stimulating, secure and caring environment based on equal regard for each individual by:-

Helping the children to develop a life-long love of learning and discovery.

Fostering self-respect and independence in the children whilst building their confidence and sense of achievement.
Fostering partnerships with the community, the local early years forum, cluster schools, associate churches and maintaining effective communication with parents.
Recognising and responding to the specific needs and abilities of individual children.
Creating an atmosphere where all staff feel valued and supported and in which appropriate training and resources ensure high quality teaching and learning.

We intend to achieve these aims by:-

Providing a balanced and broadly based curriculum incorporating the Early Learning Goals and the National Curriculum, effectively using appropriate resources and suitable learning programmes in order that all children may achieve their potential.
Developing and maintaining procedures for assessing, monitoring, evaluating and recording the work of the school in order to achieve continuity, progression and consistency within and between Key Stages and Phases of education.
Enabling the children to work together in harmony to develop a sense of responsibility, mutual respect and tolerance.
Providing experiences which will promote children’s social, cultural, moral and spiritual development as exemplified by the teachings of the Christian faith, in accordance with the doctrines of the Church of England, whilst having regard for the beliefs of other faiths.
Helping children to acquire skills, knowledge and understanding and the will to use them.
Encouraging the development of children who are communicative, articulate and receptive to new ideas.

Religious Education Gallery

How does Whitefriars promote spirituality?

Our school aims to support children in making sense of themselves and the world around them. We aim to help them observe their own responses to different experiences. Our school believes that experiences, both in and out of school, are important to the development of all pupils. We will create frameworks that help them to consider big, sometimes overwhelming, concepts such as life, death, identity, war, environmental factors etc. but without necessarily offering answers. These opportunities come through the teaching and learning of our whole school curriculum particularly our values, Collective Worship, RE, PSHCE/RSE, Science, Art, Music and English. Children will have exposure to spiritual experiences and conversations to know that it exists for everyone, including adults.

Spirituality at Whitefriars