Worship
Worship is central to our lives at St Joseph’s. We share our worship resources with parents via the Headteacher’s Blog each week, and encourage you to engage in the weekly themes with your child.
Each week focuses on the upcoming weekend’s Gospel theme, challenging the children to reflect on the values and virtues from that Gospel reading, as well as introducing our children to the principles of Catholic Social Teaching. We also incorporate into the weekly themes links to Fundamental British Values - helping to promote children's spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. We refer to these values and virtues as the "Tools of St Joseph" which children are challenged to use throughout the week to build God's Kingdom.
We are proud of our rich routine of weekly worship, providing the children with creative opportunities for prayer progression, whole school engagement in Celebration of the Word and more formal Church Liturgies throughout the year to encounter the sacraments.
| Mondays | Gospel Celebration of the Word |
Whole school worship, led by the Headteacher(or Deputy), exploring the upcoming weekend’s Gospel and challenging the children to respond to a value or virtue that can be perceived from the scripture. Children focus on this "Tool of St Joseph" throughout their week in school. Resources are shared with parents(via the Headteacher's Blog) to encourage parents to celebrate the Gospel at home with their children. |
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| Tuesdays | Prayer Formation |
A class-based opportunity to gather together and begin exploring the value or virtue of the week, through a prayer tradition, led by the Class Teacher. Throughout the year, children are introduced and progress through a range of formal, traditional, creative and free prayer experiences and encouraged to seek opportunities to live out the values and virtues of the faith. |
| Wednesdays | Prayer Enrichment |
Led by the Class Teacher. This is an opportunity for pupils and staff to embed and develop the centrality of prayer in their daily lives, enriched by the Celebrate lens of the Day by Day planning. |
| Thursdays | Child-led Celebration of the Word |
Working with our school Chaplain, children prepare and lead a Celebration of the Word for their class. They follow the format: Gather, Listen, Respond & Mission to structure their time together. The outcome of the week's focus on a "Tool of St Joseph" is then recorded in the class worship book, showing how we have grown closer to Jesus through our weekly theme. Children also evaluate the impact of the experience each week to help us as a community grow stronger and more faithful in our ministry. |
| Fridays | Class Celebration of the Word |
Each class throughout the year will create their own Celebration of the Word, based on the weekly Gospel theme and share their reflections and understanding of the values and virtues with the school and parents. This is shown through the creative medium of drama, song, choral readings and prayer. |
Daily prayer is at the heart of life at St Joseph’s, helping children to experience Jesus as a close friend; someone they can trust, seek guidance from, and turn to in times of need. Prayer is an integral part of our daily routine, taking place at the beginning and end of each school day, as well as before lunch.
We also celebrate Mass on multiple occasions throughout the year. Sometimes a priest comes to visit us and we gather as a whole community in our school hall. At other times, we take a number of year groups across to St Mary’s Church (adjacent to the school building). We have a very active relationship with our vibrant parish community, which you can learn more about here: Catholic Parish of Guildford.
If you have any questions about our worship practices, you are always welcome to come and ask. It may even be possible for you to observe school worship in order to understand our approach more fully. We always welcome your thoughts and feedback. Come and speak to a member of the Headship Team (before or after school each day) or send us an email: info@stjosephsguildford.com
We invest a significant amount of time and energy into developing engaging spaces for worship. We strive for all children to be captured by opportunities to encounter Christ.
Here are some images of our garden chapel, our prayer grottos and our liturgy focal point. Even our stairwells are an opportunity to celebrate the greatness of God!
