As a church school, we value our links with St Mary's Church, the heart of our community, and the support it provides. 

The ladies from the church visit the school regularly to engage with the children and support their learning. Each year, they help the children to make Christingles and Mothering Sunday Posies, and they encourage the children to attend church to be part of these services. 

The school is always represented at the Remembrance Service in church, providing a wreath to be laid at the memorial in the village. 

Our annual Christmas Carol Service and Easter Service are both held in the church, and always prove to be popular with the local community. 

We also have an annual Christingle Service in St Mary's Church and support the work of the Children's Society. Here is Reverend Nigel Moat at this year's Christingle Service. 

The children regularly visit the church to help to decorate it for special times of the year, such as Harvest.

We organise an annual Harvest service in church in October.

The children bring in items which are then donated to the Downham Market Foodbank. Here are some members of the School Council delivering our donations to the foodbank. 

CSI Easter - The Case of the Missing Body

On Wednesday 23rd April 2025, Class 3 and Class 4 were lucky enough to take part in a science investigation at St Mary's Church, Denver. This was organised by Denver Governors and volunteers.

The children had to watch witness statements as well as read and collect evidence that had been set up around the church. This was all to try and answer the questions:

What happened to Jesus on Friday?               Who entered the tomb?
Did Jesus actually die?                                       What had happened to the missing body?

The children tested clothing, tried codebreaking, looked at evidence at a location and examined fingerprints (including making prints of their own). The children then fed back at the end of the session their findings.

Religious Education

Religious Education is taught in accordance with the Cambridgeshire, Peterborough and Rutland Agreed Syllabus. In each year there is a focus on Christianity, as well as the opportunity for pupils to learn and evaluate their own views on other world religions.

RE enables pupils to appreciate their own and others' beliefs and cultures, helping them to develop a clear understanding of the significance of religion in their own area as well as in the world today.

The curriculum for RE is designed to ensure religious literacy lies at the heart. Being religiously literate means that pupils will have the ability to hold balanced and well-informed conversations about religion and world views. Pupils will be able to make sense of religion and world views around them and begin to understand the complex world in which they live. A multi-disciplinary approach to curriculum design provides a balance between theology, philosophy and the human/social sciences.

Collective Worship

As a Church of England School, collective worship is at the heart of the school day. All are welcome in worship and it is a time in the day that we can all be together to consider spiritual and moral issues and to explore our own beliefs. Through our collective worship we aim to develop a community spirit, promote our shared values, and reinforce positive attitudes.

Each act of collective worship will include time for thinking, sharing, listening and reflecting. We consider these elements to be the basic ingredients of any good act of worship. We use the four part model of ‘Gathering, Engaging, Responding and Sending’ in our collective worship, with liturgical greetings.

Each half term we will focus on a different Christian Value. This is done explicitly through our Collective Worship time, but also throughout our curriculum. Children will have regular opportunities to reflect on each value and to develop an understanding of each value in action. We will celebrate children who demonstrate these values in our class reflection areas and in our celebration assembly each Friday. 

Our Christian value for this half term is compassion. 

We have Worship Ambassadors (Esther, Flora, Lyla, Lorelei and Sonny) who help to organise, prepare and lead Collective Worship. 

Pupils are actively involved in worship.

Daily worship may be led by staff, children or visitors to the school. These worship times have a theme and include stories, songs or hymns, prayers and a time of reflection. We follow the Christian calendar and celebrate special days and festivals throughout the year. 

Prayer and reflection on deep questions play a key role in our worship. Our School Prayer is regularly shared in collective worship, as is The Lord's Prayer. We also have a School Blessing which is shared daily, enabling all members of our school community to spiritually flourish. 

Parents have the right to withdraw their child from Collective Worship if their own religious beliefs make this necessary. If you wish to withdraw your child, please contact the Headteacher.

Worship in Church

The children regularly visit St Mary's Church for worship. On Wednesday 15th October 2025, KS2 had a worship in church based on the theme of Ruth and friendship.

After singing with Fraser, the children were split into their classes. Class 4 watched a video telling the story of Ruth and then discussed it with Jonathan. Class 3 were told the story by Heidi. The children were then asked to make their own miniature baskets and place leaves within. Each leaf was labelled with something that was important to them. After a prayer the most challenging part was not losing the leaves in the wind back to school!

In my basket I put gymnastics, family and cross country!
Libby, Year 4

I really liked watching the film in the church.
Indi, Year 5

It was good and I enjoyed making the basket!
Eve, Year 3

Bishop's Lent Challenge

Each year, we engage in the Bishop's Lent Challenge, the theme of which this year (2026) is: ‘Therefore, encourage one another, build each other up, just as you are doing’ Thessalonians 5:11'

The Bishop's Lent Challenge 2025 (What do you want me to do for you?) was about understanding that Jesus healed people. He would ask people he met about their needs and was willing to meet them, healing them and forgiving their sins. Asking ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ gave sufferers an opportunity to reach out and speak about their troubles or pain.

Throughout the challenge, our pupils learnt about the importance of their physical, mental wellbeing and spiritual health. This helped them to prioritise personal health and supported them to recognise the blessings God gave us. We supported our pupils to see the good things in life, to stop and take notice of the people around them, and encourage them to ask ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ in order to help those in need.

 

Courageous Advocacy

Courageous advocacy is the act of speaking out against an issue of injustice, often on behalf of those whose voice is not heard. We have been gifted a special trophy by Ely Diocese to be awarded to an individual child or group of children who have demonstrated courageous advocacy. We encourage children to think of issues they would like to speak out against and support them to become courageous advocates. Here is a photo of our Courageous Advocacy trophy.  

William in Class 3 was awarded the Courageous Advocacy award in a Celebration Worship on 13/02/26. He went to the Gambia in Africa and donated books and stationery to a school there to help the children who do not have as much as we do in our school. The governors were so proud of William they also awarded him with a special book token. Well done for being a courageous advocate, William!

The School Council also proved themselves to be courageous advocates when they organised a World Book Day costume donation event on 26th February 2026.

They wanted to do this because they understand that costumes can be hard to afford, and they also wanted to help look after the environment by recycling. Here are some of the members running the donation event. A huge thank you to all those who kindly donated any unwanted costumes for the benefit of others.

Matthew in Y5 was awarded the Courageous Advocacy trophy in celebration worship on 13th March 2026 after he decided to rescue 15 battery hens through the Fresh Starts for Hens scheme. He said he wanted to do this because he 'wanted to look after something and help nature'.  

The hens are settling in well and slowly getting their feathers back. Matthew reports that they are now laying delicious eggs which he says are much better than those you buy in the shops. Here is Matthew receiving his trophy in celebration worship. 

Spirituality

Spirituality is about making sense of the world and our own experiences. It means:

• Wondering about life’s big questions
• Noticing the amazing things around us
• Thinking about how we feel inside

Spirituality is about:

Understanding ourselves (an awareness of our thoughts, feelings and what is important to us)

Thinking and caring about others (showing kindness, love, respect and understanding)

Appreciating the world’s beauty (feeling awe and wonder at life, nature, art, music)

Thinking about things beyond us (asking questions about meaning, purpose and what might be ‘more’ than we can see to make sense of the world)

We have been working on developing a shared understanding of spirituality in our school community. Here is a photo of our spiritual space. 

 Visits to Places of Worship

We regularly visit St Mary's Church, Denver. 

We also visit other places of worship including Cambridge Mosque and Norwich Synagogue. Class 3 visited Cambridge Mosque on 9th February 2026