“The staff at Tullos Primary School have worked hard to build a sense of 'family' in their school. This is important because many of the children who attend the school don't have the easiest of home environments. In many cases grandparents play a major role in the upbringing of the children, and this was reflected in some of the things the pupils wanted to talk and pray about during the prayer week. Bereavement and grief were big issues and this is perhaps a sign of how the important the extended family is in this area.

One of the most popular zones was the ‘Letting Go’ zone. The children seem to have so many worries for their young years and many found it helpful to pass these worries onto God.

One little boy, who was about P3 I think, had an instant reaction after listening to the MP3 in the ‘Sorry/sand’ zone. He listened very carefully and wrote sorry in the sand them came straight over to the ‘Prayer Request’ box. He wanted help to express how sorry he was for hitting his Mum and to put it in the box so we could pray about it later. One of my prayer team volunteers was quite moved by this as he had never seen something as instantaneous as this before.
 
The ‘Letting Go’ zone, with the stones and water, was the most popular though. The older children seemed to realise that they really could give their worries over to God. One girl came up to me just as it was time to go back to her class - we’d had a chance to talk about what the class had felt about the room and what their favourite zone was and she came bounding up to me and said, "those stones in the Letting Go zone really work". Just wonderful.
 
There were some fantastic ‘Big Questions’ but my favourite one was, "What is God's favourite flavour of ice-cream?"
 
Many of the older children said their favourite zone was the ‘Identity/mirror’ zone. I think one girl summed it up when she said that she loved being told that she was beautiful and that God loved her.  "I don't get told that very often".
 
The Head-Teacher said the week has been wonderful with so many positive comments from staff and pupils.”

And here is Katrina’s short video-tour of their prayer space;

Katrina Blackood is a Lay Associate, serving the young people's ministry at Torry St Fittick's Church

Posted by Phil

Phil Togwell lives in a large community house in Romford (UK) with his family (three daughters - Megan, Poppy and Angel, and one wife - Emma) and various visitors and pilgrims... exploring and experimenting with rhythms of prayer, mission, hospitality, life together. Phil is learning to cook, slowly. He likes curries, mountains, lengthy late-night conversations and reading books. He dislikes cats. Phil leads 24-7 Prayer's UK team and the Prayer Spaces in Schools team.