Worship
In Psalm 143:8, David says to the Lord
‘Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love, for in you I trust. Make me know the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul.’
At St Hilda’s we believe that the best way to start the school day is by listening to God, lifting our thoughts beyond our everyday circumstances and recognizing His presence in our lives.
As a school community, we begin each day with an act of collective worship as part of our Cornerstone Curriculum. Every act of worship reflects our vision and values and are teacher and student led. Worship in form is led by members of the Cornerstone Team and includes music, prayer and a Bible story.
Contents
Daily Act of Worship
Worship at St Hilda’s is the heat of our Cornerstone Curriculum and is ‘invitational, inclusive and inspirational’. We also aim to offer worship that is:
- Distinctively Christian and reflective of modern Anglican worship
- Helps students to understand the relevance of Jesus and the Bible today
- Inclusive to pupils and staff of all faiths and no faith
- Meaningful and so enables all students to flourish spiritually
- Always includes the opportunity to reflect and inspires students to be courageous advocates in the world
- Enable all students to appreciate that Christians worship in different ways
- Student and staff led – the whole school community are invited to contribute
Students and staff have daily opportunities to worship God and develop their spirituality. Examples include:
- Daily Wonder Wall and Worship (reading, reflection, response and prayer). We use the ‘Everyday faith’ from the Church of England
- Weekly Wonder Wall tasks including reflection and response to news event
- God-centred weekly house or form assemblies which also includes music
- School Eucharist each half term
- Annual Carol service in Liverpool Anglican Cathedral
- Year 6 and 7 Eucharist with parents
- Christian Union, pupil prayer and worship groups (see Chapel timetable)
- Staff prayers
- Annual pilgrimage from July 2025
- Cornerstone Week (See Cornerstone Week report 2024)
Each form has a form Wonder Wall with a copy of the School Prayer and Lord’s Prayer. The Wonder Wall is a visible focus of worship and form tutors are encouraged to use it as part of the reflection and response element of daily worship.
Pictures of form Wonder Walls
Cornerstone Team
Student Cornerstone leaders have a responsibility to set an example to others and lead our school community with a clear understanding of what worship is, why and how we worship God. Opportunities to lead collective worship are available to all members of the team and include:
- Cornerstone Team representatives
- House assemblies
- Eucharist
- Hospitality for visitors
- Student prayer groups
School Prayer
SCHOOL PRAYER 2 - p
House Assemblies
House Assemblies: these take place in forms or Houses once a week according to a calendar which is published at the start of the year. Students can be involved in the planning and delivery of these assemblies, and they include the following:
- Music relating to the theme of the assembly
- A reading from the Bible
- A reflection
- A prayer
Christian leaders from our local and wider community are also invited to lead worship at St Hilda’s.
Eucharist
We come together as a school community every half term to celebrate Eucharist. The schedule for our Eucharists is published at the start of the year. The order of service follows the Anglican Common Worship which is adapted to suit the needs of our congregation. Music is provided by the Music department and the Head of Music will work closely with the Worship Committee to plan and deliver the service.
All students and staff are invited to receive Communion or a blessing: this includes those of non-Anglican denominations.
Our September 2024 – 2025 Eucharists:
11th September – Flourishing together (welcome back)
11th November – Remembered Always (All Saints All Souls)
17th December – Carol Service at the Anglican Cathedral (families are invited to attend)
7th January 2025 – Joy and Happiness (Epiphany)
5th March – Balcony Ashes (Ash Wednesday)
4th April – Rejoice and Celebrate (Easter Eucharist)
18th July – Unique and talented (End of Year Eucharist)
Christian festivals
We celebrate Christian festivals together and encourage all members of our family to reflect on the key message of each.
Harvest festival
We show gratitude to God and to those who care for us at Harvest time by bringing in food and other items to be shared with our local community. We do so because we believe that we are all one in Jesus Christ and we should share the gifts that He has given us.
Advent
Advent is a season of hope for the St Hilda’s community and for the world. During advent we explore the meaning and importance of Hope, Peace, Joy and Love and celebrate the birth of Jesus, our saviour. We try to live out our values and spread the joy of Christmas and so, during this time we collect items to produce hampers that we then share with families and individuals within our community. We also create form baubles for our tree and create advent wreaths to express what we hope for and why we are looking forward to the arrival of Jesus. We also come together, students and parents past and present, in the Anglican Cathedral for our annual Carol service in addition to hosting a school Christmas dinner. This year our technology department also created a nativity scene, which we now proudly display in our Chapel and also held a Christmas Fayre for students and their families.
