12th December 2019
Crickhowell High School is located in the beautiful and inspiring surroundings of the Brecon Beacons National Park. The school invited us to set up a prayer space which would run for 2 days, a day with the year 7’s and an open space for the second day.
We were given a quiet classroom on the outskirts of the main building overlooking the sports field and with easy access through the fire door to set up. It’s the red wooden building in the picture above.
We covered the walls with drapery and set up 10 activities. A passage way outside the prayer space gave us space to give each class a short talk explaining what the room was for and to encourage them to get into groups of three (30 students per class). We monitored the time by allowing 4mins for each activity, a minute to move onto the next and 5 mins at the end for feedback. An allocated time keeper used a little bell to ensure everyone moved on. Our volunteers encouraged them to stick to the ordered journey through the space.
We had a white board where we projected atmospheric nature/forest pictures and sounds which we hoped would encourage the students to calm down and quietly engage.
The most popular activity was the rice/jewels encouraging students to look for the beauty in the boring and unpleasant. Sifting through the rice and picking out the jewels which were placed under the bubble tube.
Some feedback from pupils: