Prayer Spaces in Schools
Until recently, I was the Director of a schools work charity in Colchester where, in 2008, we ran our first prayer space in a state secondary school.
We created it out of a desire to give students a place where they could explore prayer and a relationship with God for themselves, instead of just hearing about it from us talking to them in an assembly or RE lesson. Sanctum, as we called it, was an overwhelming success with students and the school, and in the years that followed was run regularly in most of the secondary schools and both FE colleges in Colchester, as well as in a growing number of primary schools.
Although we didn’t know it at the time, Sanctum was one of a few similar projects popping up that year and as a result I became part of what was to turn into Prayer Spaces in Schools under the leadership of Phil Togwell. So I’ve been involved since the very beginning.
The vision for Prayer Spaces in Schools is simply to create space for every pupil in every school to have the opportunity to pray. As far as we can tell, they have now been run in about a fifth of schools across Great Britain, and over 1.5 million children and young people have had an opportunity to explore prayer this way.
Since those first prayer spaces were developed, a whole range of different settings have emerged to enable pupils to pray, as people have brought their creativity to bear on the opportunities and challenges of fitting in with the time and space available. Prayer spaces happen in classrooms, halls, outdoors and in libraries; some are permanent places available to people in school throughout the day curated by Christians from the local church who refresh the space with new prayer ideas and sometimes support groups using the space. Some pop-up prayer spaces take place in public areas of school to celebrate, remember or respond to events, and some groups have provided prayer activities in a bag for children to take home.
In all of these different ways the essential ingredient is the involvement of Christians from a local church who, by running the space, not only support the school with a significant project that is a real blessing, but also bring the welcome of Jesus into the school and into the lives of the pupils.
Far from struggling to find a welcome from schools, the main challenge we’ve had is finding churches willing to commit to partnering with a school to deliver the prayer spaces.
But running a prayer space isn’t as scary as it might sound. Most of the resources needed are not expensive and may already be available to borrow. People in your church probably have among them gazebos, parasols, fairy lights and coloured drapes which they might be prepared to lend to help decorate a space. You might only need to buy pens, paper and sticky notes. There are hundreds of freely-downloadable resource ideas on the Prayer Spaces in Schools website and in Sheffield Fiona Walton at CASS has lots of experience of prayer spaces and is available for advice and ideas. The team from Prayer Spaces in Schools is also available to run training days for area groups - just ask.
One of the things I love about prayer spaces is the way children and young people discover positive things about themselves, others, prayer and the presence of God in their lives. Two of my favourite activities are ‘Big Questions’, where pupils write the question they’d like to ask God, and ‘Prophets’ where we invite them to think about what God might want to say to their school, town or the nation and then to write this in the form of a letter from God.
Their insight and wisdom is always stunning and I love the idea that, in a small way, we have helped them to recognise that God speaks, and he might speak through them.
For reflection:
If there’s a school where I or my church already have a connection, could we offer them a prayer space?
What’s limiting my ability to offer a prayer space to a local school? Who could I ask for help or advice?
If I can’t be involved in my local school, could I offer to help another group, to support and learn from them?
Quotes from children and teachers engaging with the prayer spaces:
“The prayer space at school was something we’ve never tried before. It was great to see all the children amazed at the space. The children were creative and interacted with the stations. It was lovely to read their thoughts about some of the themes such as hope, light, joy. Some children really thought deeply and spiritually about the subjects. It made it clear to the adults in school that the children have greater concerns or worries about the world than we realised, yet they are also filled with hope for the future.”
- Teacher
“I liked the station where we gave thanks for things in our life. It was nice to reflect on people that we take for granted sometimes”
– Leenann, 10
“When we looked at the issues in our world, I thought of climate change because it is always on Newsround. We need to try and look after our planet”
– Oscar, 9
“I enjoyed sitting still and watching the lava lamp. We don’t have a lot of chance to do that because we’re always busy working. It was hard to get into it at first but once I concentrated it was good.”
– Coby, 9
About the Author
Until recently Tim was the director of CYO, a schools ministry in Colchester that delivered chaplaincy and ran prayer spaces in most of the schools and in both of the FE colleges of the city. He and the CYO team have contributed to regional and national events and Tim has been a member of the Prayer Spaces in Schools national team since it began. He now works for 24-7 Prayer as the GB Team Leader for Prayer Spaces in Schools to inspire and resource people across the country as they help children and young people to explore prayer.