Regions
Regions
Children and young people 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 spaces in schools enable children and young people, 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.
A prayer space is usually (but not always) a classroom sized area that has been transformed for a few days or a week with a range of creative activities that encourage personal reflection on issues such as forgiveness, injustice, thankfulness, big questions, identity and stillness.
Physically doing an activity associated with the theme captures the child’s attention, helps them to focus and reflect and engages students in a way where they are often amazed themselves that this is called praying.
Prayer spaces are usually run by school staff such as a chaplain, wellbeing staff member or classroom teacher. In some schools prayer spaces are organised by a suitably trained team from a local church or Christian organisation as a service to the school at the invitation of, and with the full co-operation of, senior staff. Students have also taken responsibility as part of a leadership program or as part of a student run lunch time program to set up and run prayer spaces.
Prayer spaces have been welcomed and praised by principals, teachers and parents of different faiths and of no faith as a valuable contribution to their statutory responsibility to support the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of the pupils.
It was a really beautiful experience. It was really peaceful and calm in here and the kids really seemed to enjoy the activities.
Classroom TeacherIt gave us an opportunity to see where our kids hearts are at: for some kids it was heartbreaking to read some of their prayers and for others it was beautiful to see how connected they are.
School ChaplainI was really impressed as I went around to see the different activities and to see the students engagement. Some of the students, who to be honest we didn’t think would be interested in that sort of activity really engaged and took the activities seriously.
Senior School PrincipalFind out more about Prayer Spaces and how to get involved