Faith and Worship

Love God, Love Learning, Love One Another

Through the love of learning, love of life and love of God we aspire to enable our community to grow as children of God, living life in all its fulness.

St Thomas' is a Church of England Primary school built in 1865 to serve the community of Newhey. When the school was opened in November 1865 it was also used for worship whilst St. Thomas' church was being built. It became the home to St Thomas' congregation again in 2008, following a devastating fire at the church.

Our Christian foundation underpins everything that we do at St. Thomas'. The values that we hold are the building blocks upon which we build our approach to life. Our core values are: love, respect, wisdom, generosity, compassion and forgiveness. Each of our values is supported by a Bible verse that helps us understand the importance of that value.

Worship

All children take part in a daily act of collective worship which takes on many forms. Mostly, we gather together in the school hall to worship.

During collective worship, we have the opportunity to listen to music, hear stories from the Bible and from inspirational people, reflect, pray and sing.

We base our collective worship on the Fresh Approach Collective Worship from the Diocese of Canterbury and the Diocese of Rochester. Some elements of collective worship are invitational (prays and singing). Our songs are carefully chosen to not be confessional in their nature and avoid using personal pronouns to make a declaration about belief in God, but instead they teach children how God feels about them, thus making collective worship inclusive and accessible for all.

On Thursdays, Collective Worship is held in the classroom and for this, we use Picture News. Picture News collective worship is based on events that are taking place in the world around us and give children the opportunity to reflect on the world from a Christian perspective. During this time, children get the opportunity to learn about courageous advocacy and how they can be courageous advocates.

Click on the videos below to listen to some of our favourite worship songs.