Ethos Council
At Micklehurst, we are extremely proud of our pupil-led Ethos Council. The children work as a team to help drive our school vision, ethos and Christian distinctiveness. They meet regularly and play an active role in planning and leading some of our Collective Worship assemblies, taking part in learning walks and looking for ways to promote our school values.
Our Ethos Council 2023-2024
Collective Worship
As members of the Ethos Council, one of our roles in school is to contribute to the planning and delivery of Collective Worship. Each week, we reflect on the themes and content of our Monday Collective Worship assembly and write a prayer for each year group to share during their class worship the following day. Every prayer we write also gets added to a special book that lives on our worship table in the hall.
What have our Ethos Council been up to lately?
Autumn Term 2023
Our first Ethos Council action of the year was to add two new members to our group. Year 3 elected Harrison and Sienna to join our team and they're already making brilliant contributions to our school ethos.
The year also began with a visit from a SIAMS inspector and our Ethos Council members were interviewed as part of the inspection. They were asked to explain their role and talk about how they enhance our school's ethos. The inspector was blown away by their eloquent and passionate answers and they certainly did Micklehurst proud.
We were thrilled that our Ethos Council earnt themselves a mention in the final report too:
'Pupils enjoy visits from church worship leaders and readily recall the wealth of biblical stories they share. They particularly relish worship led by their peers in the ethos team who are active its delivery and evaluation.' SIAMS, 2023
You can read the full report here:
Our Collective Worship assemblies have covered the themes of compassion and trust this term and our Ethos Council have written some brilliantly thoughtful prayers in response, here's one example on the theme of compassion...
As the Autumn term came to a close, our Ethos Council led an assembly on the theme of a compassionate Christmas and centred around the story: God of the Unexpected. They did a brilliant job of bringing the story to life and even involved their audience by asking them to reflect on how they could show compassion over the festive period.
Spring Term 2024
Throughout the Spring Term, our Ethos Council have continued to support the planning and delivery of Collective Worship and they've enjoyed reflecting on the themes of Justice and Service.
The children were also delighted to be given the opportunity to plan and deliver our Easter Service. They worked together to rehearse the service and delivered a very professional assembly during the final week of term. The assembly focussed on important symbols linked to Easter and was an opportunity to remind everyone of the events of Holy Week.
Our Ethos Council 2022-2023
What have our Ethos Council been up to lately?
Autumn Term 2022
Our school year began with a new Collective Worship focus: generosity. The children have been reflecting on what generosity is, what it looks like in practice and how we can become generous givers. The members of the Ethos Council have been helping out during our Collective Worship assemblies by reading the welcome words and lighting the candles and they've also been busy reflecting on the content of each assembly and writing a prayer.
Following the recent death of Queen Elizabeth II, we reflected as a school on how the cherished monarch demonstrated generosity throughout her lifetime; our Ethos Council then wrote a special prayer to reflect on her generous spirit.
In October, our Ethos Council delivered an assembly to the whole school on the theme of Diwali. They talked about the importance of light and led the children in a reflection about how we can be the light in the lives of others.
At Christmastime, our Ethos Council planned and led the final Collective Worship of the term. They used the story of The Grinch to reflect on 'GIFTS WE CAN ALL GIVE' and encouraged the children to think about the gifts they can give over the festive period that cost nothing. There were some fantastic ideas including offering a helping hand, being kind, sharing and spreading love.
Our Ethos Council members also played an important role in this year's Christmas Carol Service. As our entire school community came together to sing Chirstmas Carols and light their Christingles, the children delivered a number of readings and reminded us all of the Christmas story and the true meaning of this important celebration.
Spring Term 2023
This term, we began with a whole school Collective Worship focus on COURAGE. Our Ethos Council members have enjoyed exploring the reflection areas in different classes and looking at each year group’s Reflection Journal to find out what they’ve learnt about courageous advocacy and having the courage to stand up for what is right.
In February, our Ethos Council led a whole school Collective Worship assembly inspired by the festival of Candlemas. They used a story from the Bible and the words of the Nunc Dimittis to teach the children that Christians light candles at this time of year to remind themselves of those that are suffering around the world. They shared the story of Simeon and Anna and encouraged the children to reflect on how they had shown courage.
Our Ethos Council enjoyed helping to deliver this year’s Easter Service too. They led our whole school in prayer and used key passages from the Bible to tell the Easter Story. It was a wonderful service and we couldn’t have done it without the support of our Ethos Council!
Summer Term 2023
This term, our first Collective Worship focus was FRIENDSHIP. We have been using some key messages from the Bible to reflect on the value of friendship and think about how we can be good friends to others. The children particularly enjoyed making friendship bracelets as they reflected on our first Collective Worship of the term.
In April, four members of our Ethos Council attended an Ethos Conference at St. George’s C of E Primary School in Hyde. The event focussed on four elements: self, others, transcendence and beauty and the children looked at ways of developing a strong sense of spirituality. They had a brilliant day at St George’s and they came away with lots of fantastic ideas to that we can use at Micklehurst.
Here are some of the things our Ethos Council got up to last year…
Autumn Term 2021
One of our Collective Worship themes this term was 'peace' and we have enjoyed coming together to mark International Day of Peace 2021. During our Collective Worship, we learnt about the different symbols of peace and where they originated from, including the dove and the rainbow. We were also given time to reflect on the importance of peace and where we can find peace in our daily lives.
Our Ethos Council members then wrote their own prayer in response to the Collective Worship to share with the whole school community and mark this important day:
Another theme we've marked this term is Remembrance. We reflected on the sacrifices made by so many and how grateful we are for everything they've given us. Our Ethos Council wrote a prayer to share during Collective Worship and Father David posted it on Facebook so that members of the Mossley Parish could pray with us.
Spring Term 2022
This half term, our Collective Worship focus has been LOVE. Love is one of the Fruits of the Spirit that form our school values and the Ethos Council have been busy helping each class to create a reflection area that links with this theme. We've also been sharing bible stories about love, including the Parable of the Lost Sheep and the Parable of the Two Sons. The children have enjoyed reflecting on the theme by contributing to our reflection areas with their own ideas about what love is and how we can show it in our daily lives.
We've been singing some of our favourite hymns that celebrate love, including The Magic Penny.
Take a look at some of the REFLECTION AREAS in our classrooms this term…
During the second half of the Spring term, we began our Collective Worship assemblies by discussing the theme of PEACE. Check out the pictures below of some of our classroom REFLECTION AREAS…
Amelia, who is a member of the Ethos Council, was inspired by one of our Collective Worship assemblies discussing peace and the current situation in the Ukraine - she desperately wanted to do something to help and decided to plan a Bake Sale. Our entire community came together to make cakes and sweet treats and so far we’ve raised £400!
Summer Term 2022
This half term, our Collective Worship focus has been JOY and KINDNESS. Our Ethos Council members have loved going around school to monitor all of the superbly creative displays of joy and kindness in our reflect areas. Here's some examples:
The Ethos Council prepared and delivered one of our Collective Worship assemblies this term on the theme of KINDNESS. They shared with the school reasons why being kind is so good for us: it boosts our mental health, reduces stress and lifts our mood. The Council also shared their chain of kindness as a representation of how one act of kindness swiftly leads to another - we can’t wait to see how long our chain can get by the end of term!
The Junior Inspection
Four members of our Ethos Council - Amelia, Eden, Zac and Hayden - planned and carried out their own Junior Inspection to assess the impact and effectiveness of Religious Education and Collective Worship. The inspection also provided the team with an opportunity to see whether our school values and ethos were present in both classrooms and the playground. Click below to discover what our Junior Inspectors found out...
