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Prayer Spaces
Our children are innately curious about life. Growing up raises lots of questions, some to do with their experience, both the good and the bad, and some to do with their sense of wonder at the universe we live in and whether there’s more to life than meets the eye. Many have an interest in the non-material aspects of life, the spirit or soul, and want to explore how these ideas and experiences help them to develop their own sense of identity, self-worth, personal insight, meaning and purpose.
Prayer space enables children, of all faiths and none, to explore these life questions, spirituality and faith in a safe, creative and interactive way.
Taking a broadly Christian perspective as a starting point, prayer spaces give children and young people an opportunity to develop skills of personal reflection and to explore prayer in an open, inclusive and safe environment.
The approach does not proselytise and purposely allows pupils to make their own meaning and to draw their own conclusions.
In school, prayer space happens daily and children are encouraged to access prayer space independently and voluntarily.
Oak Class
In Oak Class, we are exploring what prayer is. We have calming music playing and use a candle to help us say our prayers. Here are some of the activities we have chosen to do in Prayer Space:
Cedar Class
This term in Cedar we have been having daily prayer space time to explore life’s questions, spirituality and faith in a safe, creative and interactive way. We have discovered three new resources to learn through.
Courage through the storm: Consider the storms you're finding yourself in at the moment. Present these to God by naming them and writing them on the waves with red marker pen. Ask God to give you courage through the storm, knowing that he is present and will provide protection and help.
We wrote things that were our "storms" and what we needed to whether in order to come out the other side successfully with the help of God.
The Queen - the Empty Throne: When someone dies they leave a space in our lives, like a familiar chair that is suddenly empty. Charles is our new King, but right now many people feel like the death of Queen Elizabeth has left a big gap, as if her throne is empty. Cedar had lots of questions about the death of Her Majesty the Queen such as "what will happen to all of the money and stamps?" They expressed confusion and sadness at her loss. We discussed these at length, before writing a prayer/tribute to Queen Elizabeth.
Thankful dough: We think about someone or something that we are thankful for, and then have a go at making a model of it. We think about all the good things in our lives, someone or something that we are really grateful for. While we are making our model we can also say thank you to God.
Some of the things that Cedar are thankful for are: love, belongings, nature and happiness
Compassionate Marbles: Sometimes people do and say things that cause others to suffer, whether they realise it or not. Compassion is about having concern for those that are suffering, and it often leads to action… helping, offering support, caring. We spread the glass marbles on the table and all held one each. Whilst we held a marble, we reflected on somebody that we knew who was ill or sad. As we thought about that person, we said a quiet prayer before returning the marble to the dish.
