Salesbury - a Church school
Salesbury is a Church of England Primary School with a distinct Christian ethos demonstrated through its inclusive nature welcoming all our children and families. We celebrate and value diversity and we appreciate the opportunities we have to learn from each other.
We encourage all our children to be the change they want to see. We want them to see injustice and do something. Each class has a Courageous Advocacy Project and children are encouraged to be Agents of Change over the year to provide a response to their big question. Sustaining this over time enables children to deepen their thinking and actions.
During the year, we support many charities - local, national and global such as Bishop's Harvest Appeal, Blackburn Food Bank, Give Racism the Red Card, Children in Need, Poppy Appeal for the British Legion, Comic Relief, Water Aid.
Over time, children have supported causes through actions such as:-
donating their school shoes at the end of the school year
bringing in sleeping bags, pillows, thermal cups, scarves and hats for the homeless
donating stationery for children in other schools for the start of the year
supporting Water Aid by collecting pennies in water bottles
saving pennies to buy fruit trees
Collective Worship - an inclusive, invitational and inspiring start to each day at Salesbury
Each day begins with Collective Worship where all our children come together. Our focus for Collective Worship is prompted by our cycle for Christian Values alongside the Church Calendar. Collective Worship is delivered through a range of story, questions, art, poetry, photography, song and music. At the end of Collective Worship, we ask children to respond to what they have heard through activities, discussion, behaviour and action.
Coming together each day creates the warm sense of community that is regularly commented upon at Salesbury - it really is the heartbeat of our school. We set out our Christian Vision in a way that gathers all our children together using a range of high quality teaching and worship approaches so all children are invited to be involved. Collective Worship is planned carefully and has a clear structure which is well known to the children. The Collective Worship Lead is the Headteacher, Clare Berryman.
We set up for Collective Worship together - setting out our Bible, Cross and Candle as symbols, we illustrate these together using British Sign Language.
We sing a range of songs and hymns, old and new - our children sing well!
We then say our school prayer together before we hear the Bible Verse for the day. Children are then led through a sequence of interaction, questions and prompts to deepen their thinking before reflection and prayer. Children are invited to respond with incidental prayer.
Our Collective Worship finishes each day with a witness/mission prompt to think or do during the day before we recite our Mission Statement.
Policy Statement for Collective Worship
Focus Days
Each year, we have three special focus days wo we can provide memorable experiences and encourage children to really deepen their thinking, nurture their curiosity and encourage reflection.
Advent Day is held around the 1st December and encourages children to focus on this aspect of the Church's Year. Each year, different activites are planned to mark this.
Reflection Day is held just before we close for Christmas and encourages children to have a day of calm; a break from the hustle and bustle and a time to reflect on the true meaning of Christmas. Our Teaching Assistants lead the way by providing workshops to complement learning in class.
Prevent Day is held on our first day in January. We revisit our school Bible Verse and then encourage children to explore some of the injustices in our world and explore this through philosophy, story, art, drama and prayer.
Harvest 2024
This year we will be supporting 'Harvesting a Love of Learning' the Harvest Appeal 2024 and joining Bishop Philip in his Harvest Heptathlon with a Salesbury version.
Salesbury Harvest Heptathlon
1. The first challenge is for families to create a scarecrow at home and bring into school on the 7th October to make our Salesbury Scarecrow Festival.
2. Children are asked to support the Food Bank by bringing in non-perishable foods on the 4th October. Year 6 children will take these over to Church and collectively with Salesbury St. Peter’s the donations will be taken to the Food Bank.
3. Children are asked to notice nature on an Autumn walk with their families and bring in one found object for an Autumn Discovery Table or they can choose to take a photograph if it is still growing or live!!
4. Children will be asked to write their own Harvest prayers at school.
5. Children are asked to pick up 7 items of litter while out and about. Do send us a photograph of this in action!
6. Children will be given a postcard to take home. On the blank side, children are to do their own drawing of Salesbury School and on the other side write about their favourite lesson so far this year. They should then address it to school and post it back! Younger children may draw what they like doing at school.
7. The final challenge – children will complete a Harvest Obstacle course at school to raise a donation for the appeal. Please make donations on Arbor and we will forward the donations collectively to a women’s literacy programme in the Multan Diocese, Pakistan.
Home Value Challenges
Each half-term, we encourage children to take part in a Home Value Challenge. These children created beautiful cushions of Compassion. To celebrate their contribution, we had a Compassion Picnic in school.
Our Living Foodbank
Our Year Six pupils have worked together to plan and set up a living Foodbank. We have organised items and dates for collection and placed a trolley in the school entrance for donations. Different groups of children will pass the donations on to our contact at the Foodbank each month.
Meet our Lighthouse Group
Our Lighthouse Group are leaders in Worship and a group of pupils in Year 5 and 6. They are responsible for setting up prayer stations around school, looking for values in action, leading in acts of worship and questioning children in their reflections. During our daily worship, members of the group read from the Bible and share incidental prayers. Throughout last year, the group lead our Christmas service at the end of term in Church and took part in the whole school worship during Reflection Day. The group also lead the worship on Advent Day, teaching about the advent candles and why we wait. During our Learning from the Land week, they planned and delivered outdoor worship each day.
Worship Conference
Two of our Lighthouse Group members, Evan & Henry, attended the children’s worship conference on Wednesday 13th November. The focus of the day was ‘Giants of Faith’. They thought about the qualities and characteristics needed to be a Giant of Faith and what it means to have Justice for Everyone.
From this, children thought about problems in our world and our community. This lead to a discussion about the litter they have noticed around our school grounds and the wider community. They thought about the problem, the causes of it and what will happen if they don’t do something about it. Following this, the children considered what the outcome will be, the changes that are needed and the impact this will have.
Problems - below are the issues children thought about
Solutions - below are the ideas children thought about
Further discussions about prayer, and the impact it can have to drive change, led to the children planning a prayer space that can be set up in the school.
We ended the day thinking about our Lighthouse Group: who we are, why we exist, where we are located, what we do and how we do things.
Our Lighthouse Group in action...
Lighthouse Group Planner 2024-2025
RE Conference for children
Two of our Lighthouse group members attended the Blackburn Diocese RE Conference for children. The theme was 'Exploring Spring Festivals'. The children were shown engaging and creative ways that our pupils can learn about Holi, Purim and Easter.
The course leader encouraged the children to partake in all the activities which involved: asking deep questions, observing paintings and photographs, reading religious stories, watching videos, using film clips and the internet for further investigations. Children were shown various ways that learning could be recorded in different activities. The festivals of Holi and Purim will take place on Friday 14th March and our two group members are working with Mrs Smallshaw to plan a themed morning for the whole school so we can celebrate and learn more about these festivals and why they are important.
Spaces to think, reflect, wonder and pray ...
Prayer Stations created by children
