St Giles Primary School pupils reflect on what is important to them during prayer week

Hilary Douch, headteacher of St Giles, said: “The children really enjoyed spending time with their buddies and taking part in a range of prayer related activities.

“It was a pleasure to hear children reflect on things that are important to them such as family, friendship, thankfulness and forgiveness.

“Children also enjoyed pancake races on Tuesday and our Ash Wednesday service, following this we have been thinking about Lent and positive changes we could make during this special time.”

One activity was sorry strings, which encouraged pupils to think about what they want or need to say sorry for, write it down and peg it onto some hanging strings.

Hilary said: “This activity is the only one where pupils are encouraged to write down the things they are sorry for and display them for others to see.

“The pupils don’t sign them, of course, but even so, the prayers are public.

“Amazingly, this doesn’t seem to deter pupils from writing honest sorry prayers. And once some have been pegged, many others follow.”

Another activity was called fizzing forgiveness, which encouraged pupils to think about things that they want or need to say sorry for, and then to drop a soluble Vitamin C tablet into a tall jar of water as a symbol of that sorry prayer.

The tablet slowly dissolves, ‘symbolising the clean start that forgiveness offers’ says Hilary.

Pupils said: We really enjoyed all of these activities because they taught us that prayers can be in different forms and also you don’t have to be in a church or at school - prayers can be anywhere.”

Pupils spent time as a school taking part in activities like big questions you would ask God, with questions including ‘does God exist? and ‘what will the world be like in the future?’.

They also spent time outside listening to nature and drawing what they could hear, and at the end of the week pupils met up with their friends and thought about Lent pledges.

Hilary said: “RE week was organised by Mrs Coulson and involved Father David and other members of the village community.

“Thank you to everyone who took the time to help out.”