In Church of England schools, collective worship should be inclusive of pupils and staff of all faiths and beliefs or none, invitational where all are invited, not required, to participate, and inspiring all to reflect on their lives and the world, wherever they may be on their journey of faith and belief.
Latest Collective Worship Resources
These documents change over time, so do keep revisiting to see what’s new:
Latest available Collective Worship Materials - scripts and slides will be added a couple of weeks before you need them.
Collective Worship, Autumn Term 2025 Creativity: Threads Through the Cross
In the Advent period of the final 3 weeks of term, we will be featuring creativity from our schools as part of the Christmas art exhibition ‘Joy to the World!’
Click on the'Latest Collective Worship Materials' link above above where you will find the overview for the whole term. As we complete them we will upload a script and slides for each week. They will always ready for your at least two weeks before the date we have planned on the overview.
Collective Worship, Spring Term 2026: Shine Like Stars
We begin this new term, and 2026, with a new story-saga theme, based on the story of Daniel and how his actions stood out in the challenging times in which he lived. Whilst we recognise that all these stories contain difficult themes, and might imply that standing up for your beliefs could mean certain death, we take the positive messages from each story in how Daniel and his friends were such a contrast to the leaders they served, and indeed shone like stars (Daniel 12:3). In our world today, we want to inspire resilience in our pupils, to be confident in who they are and what they stand for, just like Daniel, and to be positive role models in your school community, even when it might be difficult.
We link this in the 2nd half of term with some stories of some equally radical people from history who also ‘shone like stars’, using materials from the brand new book, ‘Heroes of Hope’, which we hope many of you have already discovered. A free copy of Heroes of Hope has been gifted to all Church of England Primary Schools or purchase here.
We finish with Easter and think what this meant for Jesus in the journey to the Cross.
Collective Worship Extras - World Events
From time to time we create an extra collective worship to enable school communities to respond to major national, and international events. You will find these scripts and slides in the Latest Collective Worship Materials link above.
Collective Worship for National Events and EDIJ Topics
The National Society has produced resources for Collective Worship for national events and EDIJ topics. There are materials for both primary and secondary pupils. Resources created so far include: Anti-bullying Week, Stephen Lawrence Day, Race Equality Week, Black Histry Month, World Refugee Day, Gypsy, Roma and Travellers Month and more.
Over summer 2025 they have created materials to address the rising tensions around asylum seekers.
More materials will be created in the academic year 2025/ 26 for themes including Autism Awareness Day, Mental Health Awareness Week, Windrush, World Refugee Day and Disability Awareness Day.
You can find these materials here
Support for Schools
To support schools, we have written and curated prayer and worship resources for use at festivals and seasons throughout the year.
We offer training for school staff responsible for planning and leading collective worship in their school. This includes:
- Training for clergy and church visitors ‘Top Tips for Leading a Primary Assembly’. See the diocesan training calendar for the next session on 10th March 2026.
- Courses, staff meetings and inset days to help schools developing aspects of spiritual development collective worship
Church of England Education Office Guidance
Spiritual development is about enabling all in the school community - pupils and adults - to live life in all its fullness; recognising that humans are made up of body, mind and spirit.
It is not about making pupils ‘religious’ but creating opportunities for the pupils to reflect on the big issues. Spiritual development should be threaded through the life of the school and across the whole curriculum.
This video is a useful introduction