Collective Worship

At HTL we enhance and enrich our curriculum with an education in love, courage and wisdom to ensure that our pupils, Christian or not, are empathetic people, ready to take on the challenges of their generation as part of a local and global community.

At HTL there is an act of collective Christian worship every day. This is usually in the form of assembly which would include prayers, the singing of hymns, traditional and modern as well as a bible story and a reflection on it. We also say a brief, child-friendly prayer of thanks before going to lunch and before going home at the end of the day. Pupils attend Year Group Mass at church approximately once every 6 weeks on a Thursday morning. This is a quiet and reflective service without music. 

Additionally, we visit the parish church for the major feast days each year such as Harvest, Remembrance, Christmas, Easter and at the end of the school year. For younger children, this is a shorter and simplified service and for our older children, it takes the form of a full parish mass. 

A really important part of our worship is being joined by other members of our community. Parents, families and the parish community are warmly welcomed into all worship that takes place at the church.

There is a general expectation that children will participate in worship by singing or responding to prayers unless there is a reason why they shouldn't. (typically, that they are of a non-christian faith although many or our non-christian children enjoy singing the hymns regardless). At the same time, participation in worship is never forced. We believe that worship should bring the pupil to the brink of an encounter with God and the rest is between him and the pupil!