Last week was the first time I’d run a prayer space in school – and taught lessons about prayer for that matter! After feeling equipped with training from the Prayer Space in Schools team, we got going on creating a brilliant, interactive plan.

We set up the prayer space at Christ’s College in Guildford, to run for a week in which Years 7-10 would have the chance to reflect on eight activities looking at ‘self, others, the world and God’. The overall theme was ‘identity’, a relevant topic in amongst the mixed messages young people receive from social media and advertising every day.

The lesson looked at prayer through games and discussion, with young people learning that actually 51% of adults in the UK pray, and that even 20% of those who don’t consider themselves religious, still sometimes pray!

Young people spent half their hour of learning in a lesson and half in the prayer space, experiencing activities that looked at refugees, the people who are our ‘lifelines’, speaking life over ourselves, forgiveness and being thankful amongst others. Below are a few quotes from the young people who took part…

‘Good lesson init!’ 

‘I learnt more about myself’ 

‘Relaxing and calm’ came up countless times. 

‘I learnt you can talk to God and don’t have to keep things to yourself’ 

‘I learnt you can pray wherever and whenever’

‘Thank you for reminding me why I should pray again’

‘I know what prayer is now’

‘Inclusive of everyone’s beliefs’

‘I really appreciate the effort gone into making it accessible for me even though I am not particularly religious’

All in, we loved running a prayer space, and we’re down to do it again at another school next term. We found it to be a real collaboration between the school, Guildford churches and Matrix, and loved seeing young people engage, regardless of whether they considered themselves Christian or not.