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
We begin the academic year with a unique set of themes based on an exhibition (‘Threads Through the Cross’) that will be hosted by Guildford Cathedral between 25th September and 3rd November. We are mindful that relatively few schools will be visiting the exhibition, so are bringing it right into your collective worship in a variety of different ways. Whilst it might seem strange to be focussing on the salvation story at this point in the school year, we hope that the endpoint of Advent and Christmas will be more meaningful having understood the journey to the Cross. We will also be linking to many ‘Autumn term’ themes that are a natural part of school life as children settle in to a new term, getting familiar with routines, school values and key events. 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 ‘Messages of hope’.
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.
Reflective Materials for Staff Inset Days
We have created some materials for use with school staff on the start of term inset days. In the pack you will find links to music, images and reflective colouring as well as some prayer and reflection station suggestions.
Prayer and Reflection Resources for Staff Inset Days
The Soul Space materials are useful for a short act of worship with a team who are not regular church attenders. Soul Space Resources
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.
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