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Prayer and reflection are areas where churches can help in the spiritual growth of children and schools as a whole. You might have read the case study about FACT’s ‘Time to wonder’ days in issue 13 – an inspiring story of how you might facilitate the growth of spiritual development in primary-aged children. There are other models out there – from going into schools with some simple prayer activities to creating special prayer events in cathedrals and abbeys.
Gemma Dunning worked with PACE, a schools work trust based in Bournemouth, to create a prayer space in their local primary school. Each class in the school was allocated 45 minutes to spend in the space, with support from Gemma and the other workers. Children were given the chance to ask big questions (and see answers), to pray for their own community and the world at large, to think about injustice, and to reflect on what they were thankful for.
Gemma said: ‘At the end of every class, we asked the children what they thought of their time in the prayer room: “epic”, “fun” and “cool” were the most common responses we received. Who would have thought it? Thirty children praying for 45 minutes and all eager to do it again! Many children revisited the room in their own time at break or lunch, some just enjoying the quiet space, others trying to finish off prayers they didn’t get time to undertake.’
At the other end of the scale, Jane Whittington, who manages spiritual development and Christian distinctiveness in schools for Guildford Diocese, coordinated a week of interactive prayer activities for over 2,600 year six children at Guildford Cathedral. Students used a variety of materials to say ‘sorry’, ‘thank you’, ‘wow’ and ‘please’. The feedback from students and schools showed that it was a valuable event.
The Guildford event was put on with the help of Prayer Spaces in Schools, an initiative of 24/7 Prayer. It has set up many spaces in both primary and secondary schools. Their website provides extensive advice on how to set up a space in your local school prayerspacesinschools.com – using a variety of videos, guidance and real-life stories. Phil Togwell leads the Prayer Spaces in Schools team in England. He has outlined his top tips for setting up a prayer space in your local school:
1. Be involved. In our experience, prayer spaces work best in the context of an ongoing relationship between a church or group of churches, and their local primary school community, rather than as one-offs or annual events. Stay and serve.
2. Choose (or create) prayer activitiesthat will work for your age group and their learning styles. Prayer activities should be fun and interactive, simple (if you can’t explain it in one sentence, it’s too complicated), inclusive (it should work whether the child has a faith background or not) and easy for the children to relate to. Check out the top ten resources on our website for tried-and-tested ideas.
3. Encourage ‘big question’ prayers. Invite the children to write or draw a big question prayer onto a post-it note or a piece of torn cardboard. You’ll be amazed, amused and probably heartbroken by what they write. Don’t rush to answer these big questions – they’re not for you anyway.
4. People are more important than post-it notes. Choosing the right people for your team is more important than choosing the right prayer activities. Look for confidence, care, encouragement, hospitality and good listeners. You’ll need at least four people to run your primary school prayer space.
5. Get in touch. If you’re new to running prayer spaces in primary schools, explore our website, get along to a training workshop near you, and if at all possible, go and visit a prayer space in action. Seeing is believing, and inspiring too!
Organisations such as Prayer Spaces in Schools or FACT are great places to start thinking around how you might offer a prayer space to your local school. It is important to remember Phil’s point: you need to offer a space as part of an ongoing relationship with the school. Also, you need to make sure that the format and activities that you use are appropriate to the children, the context and the school. The benefits to both children and school can be amazing!
