At St Thomas of Canterbury School, we use a four-part approach to Celebration of the Word, taking the mass as a perfect example of this.

1. Gather – We welcome everyone and prepare ourselves to get closer to God.
2. Word – We experience a piece of scripture using methods such as drama, art, music, movement, silence, story, song and poetry to bring it to life.
3. Response – We consider what we have seen and heard and how it relates to us.
4. Mission – We rejoice and go forth to live out the Gospel of the Lord in our lives.

On Monday, we gather together as a school for our assembly to share the Gospel and think about its meaning to us and how to live out the Word of the Lord in our lives. 

In addition, a daily Celebration of the Word takes place in each classroom. Our aim is for all children who leave our school to feel confident in leading prayer and to support with this, all classrooms have:

• Let us Pray cards with examples of Gather, Response and Mission
• Interactive resources, such as stones, shells, plants and music
• Resources related to the time of Liturgical year (Rosary beads in October, wreath during Advent etc.)
• Children’s Bible and/or Good News Bible

Our expectations around how much children lead and how this is modelled by adults is set out in our Celebration of the Word Progression Map.