Prayer and Liturgy

Prayer and Liturgy at St Anthony’s

As a Catholic school, prayer and liturgy are at the core of our school life, here at St Anthony’s. Our aim is that through the experience of prayer and liturgy, our school community comes together to worship and become closer to God.

It is through acts of collective worship, and prayer and liturgy, alongside daily classroom prayers, that we are able to live out our mission statement of ‘We learn in His footsteps, we serve in His footsteps, we walk in His footsteps. ’.

The school gathers every Monday for Collective Worship, which is linked to the liturgical season and Sunday’s Gospel. Mrs Barnes leads these acts of worship.  In addition to this weekly assembly, we also have a class worship assembly on a Tuesday, where parents of the children in that class are invited and the whole school gather.  We come together as a school on a Friday for a worship and celebration assembly. Here children are rewarded for being our ‘Star of the Week’ and our ‘Citizen’ awards.

Each class attends Mass at St Anthony’s Church on a Wednesday morning on a rotation, so that each class can become more involved and assist with the bidding prayers, offertory and receive a blessing at the Eucharist. If a class is not attending Mass, Celebration of the Word takes place in the classroom.

Class worship and Celebration of the Word happens in every class on a Wednesday and a Thursday. All acts of prayer and liturgy follow the format of ‘Gather, Listen, Respond and Send’. The children engage in familiar hymns, prayers, and scripture and always observe the lighting of a candle to remind us that Jesus is present and is the Light of the World.

We encourage the children to pray by providing a prayer space and worship table in each classroom, the colours of which reflect the current liturgical season. All classes participate in a morning prayer, lunchtime prayer and end of day prayer.  In each class, there is a book where weekly planning templates for the Celebration of the Word are kept as a reminder and record of the acts of worship. We also keep a class Prayer and Liturgy book where thoughts and responses from the children are recorded when appropriate.