Chaplaincy

As a Church of England high school, we are proud to have a full-time school Chaplain, based in their own dedicated Chaplaincy hub at the heart of school life and available to every student and member of staff. The role of the Chaplain is to help students and staff explore our Christian values and make them come alive: in their own lives, in the life of our school, and in the community we live in. As a constant and trusted presence, the Chaplain is an important adult role model for both students and staff. The Chaplain plays the lead role in preparing and leading worship for the whole school community, runs clubs for students, and leads spiritual reflection across school. Our Chaplaincy hub gives students and staff a warm, welcoming space to talk, reflect, pray, or simply find a moment of stillness in the day.

Collective Worship

Collective Worship is an integral and central part of our school day. Every afternoon during form time we take time to pause and participate in an act of worship. The Worship Bulletin is sent out each week with thoughts, reflections and interactive activities for students to take part in. We ensure these are inclusive for the whole school and they are regularly put on our Facebook page.

Collective Worship takes place in a variety of contexts:

• Daily Form Tutor Time: This includes a prayer and worship-based activity.
• Weekly Year Group Collective Worship: This is led by the HOY, a local member of the clergy, a Form Group, the Head of Christian Distinctiveness or a Senior Leader.
• Friday Form Tutor Time: This is led by the school Chaplain.
• Whole School Collective Worship: This takes place at the start of each half term and at Key Events in the Christian Calendar.

Form time worship is planned to ensure that the time is used to develop pupil’s spirituality and wellbeing.

Day:	Act of Worship:
Monday	A thought to start the week and inspiring messages from the Head of Year or School Chaplain.
Tuesday	‘Lowton’s Voice’ - Moral Issues and Social Understanding of the world or Year Group Collective Worship.
Wednesday	Nurture, Wellbeing & Spiritual Growth and Achievement and Attendance data.
Thursday	‘Lowton’s Voice’ - Moral Issues and Social Understanding of the world or Year Group Collective Worship.
Friday	Formal Form Collective worship - formal worship and worship activities delivered by the school chaplain.

As a Church of England High School, we dedicate time to prayer and reflection, giving pupils the space to contemplate or offer to God their gratitude and worries. This is led and modelled by the senior leadership team, the Head of Christian Distinctiveness, the school chaplain and form tutors.

Our Daily Prayers are:

Day of the week:	Prayer to use:
Monday	Father God we thank you for the week that lies ahead that is full of promise and possibilities.  Give us strength and energy for this new week.   Amen.
Tuesday and Thursday	Father God let us take a moment to think of those less fortunate than ourselves. Help us to show compassion to others and bring hope and light to those who are suffering. Amen.
Wednesday	Father God we take a moment to pause and reflect and think of anything now that may be troubling us. We thank you for your support and guidance and we lift to you those in our school community who are struggling.  Amen
Friday	Father God as we take this moment to reflect, we thank you for this week.  We thank you for the time we get to spend together in form time.  Thank you that during this time we have chance to learn more about you and the kind of person you want us to be.  Please help and guide us as we look at our Friday theme together now.   Amen

Parental right to withdraw from Collective Worship

Collective worship at Lowton Church of England High School is Christian in character and reflects our Anglican foundation. It is also inclusive, invitational, and inspirational: it is open to pupils of all faiths and none, no one is required to take part in prayer or worship against their conscience, and we hope every pupil will join in and find it valuable.
Parents and carers do, however, have the legal right to withdraw their child from all or part of collective worship. If you are considering this, we warmly encourage you to speak with the Deputy Headteacher first, so that we can explain what collective worship involves and answer any questions you may have. Any request to withdraw should then be made in writing to the Headteacher. Where a pupil is withdrawn, the school will supervise them appropriately during that time.

Social Action

Our curriculum strategy is framed in three complementary strands:

• Academic rigour
• Nurture and development
• Social action

Social Action is a central element of our curriculum ambition and commitment for all students in our school. It is an important and explicit part of our Christian distinctiveness and a fundamental part of the offer to parents who choose to send their child to a Church of England school. All Church of England Schools share the vision to be ‘Deeply Christian, serving the common good.’

Social action also encapsulates ‘courageous advocacy’.

In our school social action means to speak up, act and give to improve our world. It aims to educate young people about courageous advocacy, it leads to the practical taking of action, challenging of injustice and becoming informed changemakers locally, regionally, nationally and globally. Our Social action strategy aims to ensure that all people can flourish as God intended. 
 

Spirituality

Spirituality permeates through the life of the school in lessons, through worship and in moments of collective gatherings. We unlock opportunities for those in our school community to think about spirituality, to explore the meaning of faith, to examine and question the world we live and philosophical ideas, and to examine the meaning behind having a personal faith.

We define Spirituality as:

Spirituality is the essence of being human; it is individual to each one of us. A sense of connection to something bigger than ourselves, often involving a search for meaning in life. At Lowton Church of England High School spirituality is about developing the person as a whole. When we think of spirituality we think of four key elements - Self, Others, Awe and Wonder and Beyond.

Justice and Responsibility

Social action sits alongside academic rigour and nurture as one of the three strands of our curriculum, rather than an add-on activity. Rooted in Isaiah 1:17 and Micah 6:8, and shaped by the Church of England's vision to be "deeply Christian, serving the common good," our approach goes beyond charitable fundraising towards courageous advocacy. Students are encouraged to ask not just "why?" but "what can be done about it?", building the knowledge, confidence and moral purpose to become informed changemakers, locally, nationally and globally.

Each year, our dedicated Social Action Day gives students the chance to explore issues such as food poverty, climate change and inclusion, considering both the causes of injustice and the actions that can bring positive change, including writing speeches and raising awareness of environmental issues such as plastic waste. Students also engage directly with democratic life, taking part in the Youth Parliament Election and contributing to the University of Manchester's BeeWell campaign on issues affecting young people locally, while regular pupil consultation ensures students help shape school life more widely.

Giving remains at the heart of this work. Our most recent Harvest Appeal collected 421kg for the local foodbank, its strongest school collection in eleven years, while our Christmas appeal raised over £3,000, and our ongoing support for vulnerable children in Uganda, through our long-standing link with the AYF Band, has generated more than £5,000 over the past two years. Last year, this included a Christmas non-uniform day in aid of our Ugandan orphanage link, and Remembrance was marked with a whole-school act of remembrance and poppy appeal, alongside our annual Harvest foodbank collection. This year, students took part in Christian Aid Week's loose change launch and fundraising drive, and individual students have gone further still, independently organising their own fundraising initiatives, showing the same spirit of service modelled by staff who take part in events such as the London Marathon.

Leadership runs through all of this work. Our Student Ambassador and Year 11 Prefect programmes give students a genuine pathway into service, from leading Open Evening tours to supporting younger pupils through transition, peer mentoring, and initiatives such as our Read Aloud Buddies scheme and litter-picking projects.

The Lowton Ethos Award recognises this sustained commitment to fundraising, volunteering and community service, encouraging students to progress from Bronze to Platinum as they reflect on the difference they are making. Through all of this, our students are empowered to become courageous advocates: young people who identify injustice, serve others and use their voice for positive change, embodying our vision of being deeply Christian and serving the common good.