In January, St Stephen's, Astley teamed up with St Stephen’s CE Primary School to launch a new venture, ‘Family Time Collective Worship’.
As part of this new project, supported by the Man Dio Growing Faith Team, the families of two different year groups are invited into school on a Tuesday morning for tea and coffee and to attend Collective Worship. This works on a rota basis for each year group and is supported by PCC members who make the refreshments and have a chat with the families.
Whilst enjoying a hot drink, families are each given ‘Table Talk’ cards which focus on the Collective Worship theme for that particular week. This helps family members to better understand what their children are learning about and creates an opportunity for them to chat at home about it. If a family is unable to attend then their child has the option to take a card home instead.
As a result of ‘Family Time Collective Worship’, families can enjoy being part of the life of the school whilst gaining an understanding of what their children experience and learn about during Collective Worship.
Our Man Dio workers can see friendships starting to form as the families chat with one another, and one Dad even asks for extra cards each week so he can put them in his children’s lunchboxes.
It is great to see this collaborative approach to worship being implemented by St Stephen’s, and we are so excited to see where this might lead in the future as new seeds of faith are being sown!