The school shares in a daily act of Christian Worship, which usually led by a member of the teaching staff. Twice a week we worship in the village Church and occasionally the parish vicar joins us to lead worship.
Children are encouraged to become actively involved in worship and take the lead in our major celebrations.
We promote spirituality through our ethos of respect for others, care for our world and discussing the big questions.
Under the provisions of the Education Reform Act 1988 all parents have a right to withdraw their child from the School’s daily ‘Collective Act of Worship’.
These short services, geared especially to children , are held every third Sunday of the month . They start at 9.30 with breakfast – croissants, coffee and squash – and then the actual service lasts 30- 40 mins. Children are encouraged to take part in reading prayers if they wish to do so.
Church Choir
The church choir meets on Wednesday evenings from 6.30 till 7 in church. New members are always welcome including school children from 6 years old and up, particularly when they can cope with reading the words in the hymn book. They do not meet in the school holidays.
Lace Find
A photo of the school appeared on BBC 1 on Monday 28 April during the programme Bargain Hunt which came from Devon when Carol was interviewed about the important lace find at the school in 2002.
The find was actually made by Gill when she went to the school during her local history research and was invited by the Headteacher Mr Wilson to see if there was anything of interest in an old cupboard. There Gill found a sachet of lace samples, which had probably been there since the 1840s, and which had been sent to Queen Victoria.
By coincidence in the same week an article had been found in The Times dated January 9th 1841 saying that Her Majesty the Queen had graciously commanded a further order from the destitute lace makers of Woodbury Salterton in Devon.
Queen Victoria liked and valued lace and was anxious to promote hand made lace in face of competition from machine made.
The sachet contained a woven panel worked with ‘Her Majesty Queen Victoria with humble gratitude of the poor lace makers of Woodbury Salterton with humble hope of future orders’.
There were over 200 samples of different designs, all done in Devon trolly lace. Some were missing and had probably been those chosen by Queen Victoria.
The School Governors had a meeting with Gill and Carol and decided that it would never be sold but Carol was given permission to take it to display at worldwide lace conferences and to write a book about it as this was the first time Devon trolly lace had been known to have been produced here. It had come from Europe in the 16th to 18th centuries.
In September we welcome our new vicar, Revd. Lewis Eden, and his wife Catherine.
Our church is one of the seven churches in the White Cross Mission Community so it will take some time for Lewis to get to know us all.
Lewis and Catherine were married last April and will make their home in the Vicarage in Woodbury. Lewis has expressed a particular interest in our schools so we look forward to his support. The Mission Community is hoping soon to employ a Family Worker, who it is hoped will also support our schools.
