Background Information about our Church
St Stephen's Church was founded in 1870 and was the vision of Harrison Blair who owned the local chemical works. He died in 1871 before the building was completed. The graveyard holds the remains of 19 miners who were killed in the Unity Brook Colliery disaster.
We are a Voluntary Aided Church School
Some schools are owned and run by the Local Authority. These are called 'Maintained' schools. Other schools are called 'Voluntary' schools. These were built by the Church independently from the Local Authority. Some voluntary schools chose to hand their ownership and control to the Local Authority. These became 'Voluntary Controlled' schools. Others chose to receive their funding through the Local Authority but retain ownership and management of the school. These are called 'Voluntary Aided' schools. St Stephen's is one such school.
As a church school, we have a strong Christian ethos and pride ourselves in the fact that we educate our children in a Christian way of life, upholding Christian values.
Worship in School and Church
Welcome Worship takes place in the school hall on Monday morning at 9.00 am. We attend Church fortnightly on Wednesday afternoons where our services are led by Mrs Deborah Bithell. Alternate Wednesdays the children will have Worship at 3.45 pm in the School Hall. There is Singing Worship for all children on Thursdays. On Fridays we celebrate children's achievements in a special assembly. Our Mountain Movers (Ethos Team) help develop our Worship timetable throughout the year with Mrs Faulkner and Mrs Bithell. Our core value of love is the heartbeat of everything we do at St Stephen's and permeates every fibre of our school. Each half term we revisit the theme of love before exploring one of our key values.
During Autumn term the value of hope and resilience drives our worship. As we move into Spring term we dive deeper into our core value of faith and justice. Throughout Summer term we take the opportunity to explore our key values of respect and trust.
We also celebrate important Christian festivals, such as Easter, Harvest, Christingle and Christmas in church with parents, friends and relatives.
Year 6 children are given the opportunity to attend confirmation classes prior to being confirmed. Confirmation classes are offered to children when they enter Year 6.
Collective Worship Policy
Wiggle Worship
Singing Worship
Each week we join together, as a school family, for our singing worship time. The children love the time to praise and celebrate God’s greatness and experience how to worship God in a multi sensory, engaging way. The children have chosen some of their favourite worship songs to create artworks that adorn our school hall.
Worship songs
