The children at St Mark’s School recently enjoyed praying in their very first pop up prayer space in the Robin Room next to the outdoor prayer garden. Over three days about 100 pupils visited in their year groups to discover different and creative ways to pray.

The children loved relaxing as they watched the colours changing and bubbles rising in the enormous bubble tube. They thought about how we can talk to God about anything and wrote and drew their prayers on post-it notes, sticking them onto the bubble tube.   

Everyone loved Thankful Ducks. They ‘hooked a duck’ from the pond and then were prompted by what the duck had written on its underneath to write a thank you prayer for things such as their homes, families, favourite food, clean water and friends. The children cut out their thank you prayers to display on the windows and as you can see there is lots they were thankful for.

In the ‘Sorry Zone’ we thought about the things which sometimes happen that to us in life that might make us sad and about times when we do or say things which make others sad. Then we talked about letting go of those feelings by forgiving others and making a new, clean start, and we used ‘Fizzy Forgiveness’ and ‘Wipe the slate clean’ to help us pray. As they watched fizzy forgiveness tablets dissolving and wiped their slates clean many children talked about how they were feeling and made connections between what they were seeing and doing and what they were experiencing, saying ‘I feel as though all the sadness is fizzing away’ and ‘It’s like all the bad stuff has evaporated’.

The children used their recent learning about ecology and British wild life to help them pray for the world and to think about ‘God’s Marvellous World’ where they drew fantastic pictures of their favourite animals and wondered about how marvellous they are.      

Everyone had a moment to think about what one question they would like to ask God and then wrote it on the ‘Big Questions‘ wall. The children asked some amazing questions such as ‘How did you come alive?’   ‘Do you like being in heaven?’ ‘Did you ever kiss Mary or Joseph?’ ‘Why did you create sickness?’ ‘What do you do in your spare time?’

And finally everyone wrote on a huge cardboard wall what they enjoyed most about their prayer space in the Robin Room.          

‘I loved the bubble zone because you can be quiet and calm and thank you for the ducks’