At Christ the King School, pupils not only experience the Celebration of the Word but they actively, lead, plan and initiate times to encounter God through giving praise, glory, honour and thanks to Him.

In addition to helping children to learn Traditional Prayers of the Church, we strive to educate our children in the many different ways that they can pray in addition to explaining the purpose and power of prayer. Our children are exposed to many of the prayer traditions of the Catholic Church and given time to explore their own prayer through a variety of prayer opportunities.

Prayer and Liturgy

Each fortnight pupils attend Mass in church which is planned and led by the children from a particular class and Fr. Simon and Deacon Gary are helped to administer the Blessed Sacrament by members who have been chosen to be Extraordinary Ministers of Communion. Governors, parents and family members are always welcome to celebrate Mass with us and we actively encourage parents to attend these special times of worship.

Each week, Mrs Clayton leads a Celebration of the Word to both key stages sharing and explaining the coming Sunday Gospel and this is followed by time to celebrate the children’s achievements. 

On the first week of half term, Miss Mulligan leads a Celebration of the Word based on the Gospel Virtues and Catholic Social Teaching value in focus. Not only is this an engaging way for the children to come together to learn more about the scripture behind the virtues and values of our faith, but it also gives the children a better understanding in preparation for leading their own Celebrations of the Word that half term. In this time, one child from each class is awarded the last half term's Gospel Virtue certificate to celebrate those children who have truly shown the virtues in their actions and attitudes.

Every week the children plan and prepare their own Celebration of the Word by choosing how they will gather, what scripture they would like to listen to, how they will respond to scripture and the mission they would like to create to strengthen their faith in action that week. We have a progression of the skills needed for the children to independently lead this by Year 6. We hope that this strengthens their own choices for worship and will become a bank of spiritual opportunities they can create for themselves for the rest of their lives. Each class shares one Celebration on the Word with the whole school through zoom and with their parents once a year, with the focus of their class saint. 

For Advent, Lent and the month of Mary (May), year groups are chosen to deliver a Stay and Pray for their families, to remind us of these important times in the liturgical calendar and strengthen prayer at home. 

From September, children in the Reception classes are paired up with children in Year 6 as Prayer Buddies. They sit together during Mass in the Autumn term and spend time together praying throughout the year.

Songs of Praise

On Friday afternoons, we end our week, with our wonderful Miss Cooper, through giving praise to God in Hymn Practice: as it says in the Catechism of the Catholic Church - “He who sings prays twice”. 

Miss Cooper also leads School Choir in practice for the upcoming Mass hymns every Friday after school. 

Celebration of the Word

Children plan Celebration of the Word weekly with support from their teaching assistant and lead these with their teachers. Themes are carefully chosen by the Prayer and Liturgy coordinator Miss Mulligan, to incorporate Catholic Social Teaching values, Gospel Virtues, Saints feast days, Liturgical seasons and themes and an opportunity for the children to choose their own themes. They choose how they would like to gather, what scripture they would like to hear, how they would like everyone to respond and what mission they will give to live out our faith according to the week's theme. Children are developing a variety of ways to pray in both this time and RE lessons.

Within each classroom we have a prayer focus which children are encouraged to contribute to. These are monitored regularly by the CTK Chaplaincy team, who give feedback to classes and teachers.

Staff Prayers

Each Friday morning, staff gather together and pray. A different staff member prepares this Celebration of the Word around their own theme. 

We also begin every staff meeting with a time of prayer, often led by Mrs Clayton to share the coming Sunday Gospel and it's message.

In the classroom 

In class, we pray traditional prayers of the Church every day. Each year group's prayers to be known can be found on our website and in the children's prayer bags. 

Prayer bags are equipped with everything a child needs to create a Celebration of the Word at home including prayer cloth, a battery operated candle, crucifix and scripture cards. 

Special Celebrations

During the months of October and May, the Chaplaincy Team plan and lead a ‘Rosary Club’ for the other children.

In November, we hold a special assembly on Remembrance Day and during the Mass that takes place in this week we process our ‘Christ the King Book of Holy Souls’.

When we are preparing for Christmas during Advent, the children from EYFS and Key Stage 1 each perform a Christmas Nativity whilst Year 3 and Year 6 lead the school in a Carol Concert.

During Lent, the Year 4 and 5 children enable us to reflect on Christ’s Passion through their Easter Production and we end our term on the Thursday of Holy Week with the Stations of the Cross.

Children from Y3 - 6 are also provided with the opportunity to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation during these key liturgical seasons as part of their year group Penitential Services.

Whole School Retreats

In addition to Masses, we also come together as a whole school for bi-annual retreat days and during the key times in the Church’s year. This year we were lucky enough to be joined by Dan and Emily!

Y5 Fan the Flame retreat 2025

Praying the Rosary 

Working with our Sursum Corda group we take part in a collective Rosary in October and May, each school leads a decade of the Rosary as we join together via zoom.

This year, we also did a Celebration of the Word where every class walked the Rosary Road, in the spirt of pilgrimage. At each section of the school grounds, they gathered, listened to scripture, responded through prayer and at the end the children had a mission to continue to pray the rosary at home.