‘Children Talking’ is a web-based database of pupils’ responses to key questions raised in RE, with a search facility and the option for pupils to add their own responses to the original questions. What that means is that you can get a list of quotes about a whole range of subjects from young people in the UK. And you can specify the age, gender and religion of the children or young people you want to hear from. Their comments could be really useful as part of an assembly or lesson.

Schools Prayer Network are partnering with One Generation, Youth for Christ and Scripture Union to develop some prayer for schools evenings.

This month’s Youthwork magazine resource features a prayer from St. Francis of Assisi. Here is the prayer in pdf form.

Love this poem that I came across today. It’s the kind of thing that you could take one line of each day to meditate on. A fantastic focus to have during Lent.

I’ve just got back from a week at Momentum (Soul Survivor’s festival for young adults), talking about prayer in schools. I was there helping out with a prayer space called Orison, which is a really exciting prayer initiative designed for use in schools.  “Orison is an interactive, spiritual experience which exists to encourage people of all ages to consider questions of spirituality and to engage with God through creative, hands-on prayer activities by working in conjunction with the National Curriculum Guidelines for Religious Education.”

Check out more on their site here.

With activities ranging from bubble tubes to sand trays and mirrors, there are plenty of interactive ways of engaging children and young people in thinking about prayer. Coming soon on schoolswork.co.uk we’ll be featuring some of the resources used in Orison and a bigger conversation about how and why we want to engage students thinking about prayer in schools.

If you’re thinking of running a prayer room or a reflective space in your school, you’ve come to the right place. Here are 11 ready to use resources, which require varying amounts of preparation and equipment, but are all available to you free of charge. They have been designed as part of Orison, which is a prayer initiative for use in schools encouraging children and young people to engage with prayer and thinking reflectively about themselves, other people, the places around them and God.

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Continue reading to find out more about Orison and to access the resources.

So it’s Thursday morning and once again I unlock the prayer room at Cathedral school Wakefield bleary-eyed. I have a tidy up, mop up sand and water that has spilt and restick the post-it notes on the map that have fallen off. As I do so I read some of the heartfelt and honest prayers that students have posted…