We cycled all our Year 7 RE classes and some Year 8 and 9 RE classes through the Prayer Spaces at Ivanhoe Girls Grammar School last term. The feedback was so positive, I will definitely be setting it up again next year.

We had 6 activities inside and 1 outside, and they were focussed on connecting with self, others, the world and with God. Our students have come from backgrounds of many different religions and from families where no faith is practiced. The prayer space offered them all the opportunity to explore how they felt, and how they might be able to connect with themselves, others and also with God in different ways.

I noticed that they enjoyed moving around at their own pace and some lingered longer than others in particular places, like the ‘Where is the love?’ section. I overheard some great conversations too, one Year 9 student was calmly answering some pretty personal questions about her involvement in a Youth Group, the others had never even heard of such a thing. It was a positive experience for her and her classmates, to have a safe space to be open. Afterwards, most said they they enjoyed the experience and used phrases like ‘it was calming’, ‘it was a really peaceful way to finish the day’.

As a Chaplain, I have also used some of these prayer space activities in my Chapel Services. I used the ‘Hope Rope’ in Chapel where I was looking at the issue of worrying, and gave them all a length of rope. I built on the theme of ‘Where is the love?’ with senior students in Chapel. The resources on the website are very useful in many different contexts at school as they are great tools for capturing the students attention and engaging the students in reflection and prayer.