All Saints Church – Oakham

Oakham Church of England Primary School is part of The Diocese of Peterborough. All Saints Parish Church Oakham, situated right in the heart of the town, is the largest Church in England’s smallest county. It has a full range of worship and community activities on every day of the week. We work in partnership with the churches and ministers of the other nine churches in the Oakham Team Ministry. There are very good and fruitful relations with other Churches in the town. We aim to be a welcoming Christian community and as the only Anglican church in the town we attract people from all traditions. We value our musical life and are committed to engaged preaching. Children are welcomed and encouraged at all our services. A range of home, fellowship and study groups are held in the Parish and across the Team. All Saints Church – Oakham Website: www.allsaintsoakham.org.uk

Collective Worship

Collective Worship is highly valued as a time set apart in the school day and week, where the whole school community can gather together. It provides opportunities for the school community to arrive in worship with the right attitude, engage with their own spirituality and Biblical teachings and leave feeling refreshed and inspired. Worship is a ‘time to breathe’; a time when all can come together to find a space, silence and quietness to reflect on their own spirituality, values and place in the world. Just as breathing is vitally important to life, worship is a significant and sacred time in the life of the school; ensuring the time is valued to allow all to ‘breathe’. 

Collective worship gives the whole school community the opportunity to:

• Engage in an act of togetherness and community.
• Affirm and understand Biblical stories and the Christian values and attitudes which underpin our schools' foundation.
• Celebrate special times in the Christian calendar and beyond.
• Explore the big questions of life and respond to national events.
• Foster respect and deepen spiritual awareness.
• Be still and reflect.
• Share each other’s joys, successes and challenges.

It is important that we remember collective worship should be inclusive, inspirational and invitational no matter where it is held or who is leading.

• Inclusive: something for children and teachers, of all faiths or of none to be able to join in with.
• Inspirational: a time in the day to think about the big questions in our lives; an occasion that supports the school community’s spiritual development.
• Invitational: an opportunity for those of any religious faith or none to focus and reflect on stimuli which allow the human spirit to respond with integrity.

Structure for the week:

In line with our Data Protection Policy, parents, relatives and friends are requested not to record any images (take photos/videos) at any school event until they are invited to do so.

Statutory Inspection of Anglican and Methodist Schools (SIAMS)

All Church of England dioceses and the Methodist Church use the National Society’s framework for the Statutory Inspection of Anglican and Methodist Schools (SIAMS) under Section 48 of the Education Act 2005. The framework sets out the expectations for the conduct of the Statutory Inspection of Anglican, Methodist and ecumenical Schools under Section 48 of the Education Act 2005 and provides a process for evaluating the extent to which church schools are “distinctively and recognisably Christian institutions”.

SIAMS inspection focuses on the effect that the Christian ethos of the church school has on the children and young people who attend it. Church schools will employ a variety of strategies and styles, which reflect their particular local context or church tradition in order to be distinctive and effective. Inspectors will, therefore, not be looking to apply a preconceived template of what a church school should be like.

The principal objective of SIAMS inspection is to evaluate the distinctiveness and effectiveness of the school as a church school.

The style of inspection by SIAMS has recently changed, it will now focus on the following three questions:

• Who are we as a school?
• Why are we here?
• How then do we live?

It looks at this from seven different strands:
– Vision and Leadership
– Wisdom, Knowledge and Skills
– Character Development: Hope, Aspiration and Courageous Advocacy
– Community and Living Well Together
– Dignity and Respect
– The impact of collective worship