This was a good one. Another good partnership between a school, FAST (a team who organise volunteers from the local church to serve in primary schools) and those of us who are running orison in Farnham.

Dim lights

Hale School is a 2 class entry community school. The 4th primary school in our area to run a week of orison, and the largest. The area is on the Aldershot side of Farnham and enjoys a wonderfully mixed demographic. June Trantom (the head) and Mary Dyson (RE Coordinator and a year one teacher) met us to discuss how orison worked, where it could be located in the school and the logistical implications in terms of time table. Their favourite option was to be in the summer term so that we could put orison in the school gym - and hope that PE classes could be run in the playground. This idea did not fit into our increasingly busy orison schedule. So, we went for October and the second best option of setting up orison in a classroom.

The implications of less space were that each class needed about 1 hour in the timetable. The FAST team met them in their classroom and organised them into 2 rotations, and sent the first half (about 15 children) over to the orison room. In the classroom the FAST team lead another session on creative and hands on prayer: where the young people decorate a plate with four types of prayers. WOW, HOPE, SORRY and THANK YOU.

The orison room was laid out with the elements of the main four zones: Bubble, Image, World and Sorry, with the addition of the “If you had one question for God?” papered area on the floor.

The timetable was brilliantly put together by the school. We set up the room all day on Monday. During thios time a small group went off for half an hour to lead a whole school assembly where they introduced the theme (prayer) of the sessions we would be leading. This included the use of an arrow board where the arrow sometimes goes the “same way as before” – which represented when we pray and things seem to stay the same. The arrow then surprises everybody by changing direction – which represents when we pray and God appears to do the opposite of nothing!

After the end of school on Monday the head brought all the teaching staff together on the orison space to experience it, enjoy it, explore it and then having a few minutes of explanation and questions. The staff seemed to enjoy this process and asked a number of questions ranging from health&safety to how we would like them to be involved when the children were in the space. Everyone said it was very useful to have had previous experience before leading the children into their sessions.

Tuesday to Friday included one hour sessions for every class from Reception to Year 6. These went very well. We needed a minimum team of 3 to serve in the room. This was then supplemented by teaching staff and other visitors (who were mostly people considering doing orison in their own schools or areas, but did include some parents). The smaller children (Year R and 1) needed more supporting adults.

The genius moment of the week was the fact that year 6 were responsible for leading a whole school assembly on the Friday. It was decided that they would use the time to reflect on orison, what they had done and how it had made them feel/think. They were helped to prepare their reflections (in poems, painting, questions thoughts and prayers) by one of the teachers with a strong faith and a parent who is one of the Christian leaders in the town. I have added a few pictures below and one of the poems the children wrote:



The Poems, by P, S and M

The wish I made the other day
Flew to God and made my day
Some fail, some come

The tube I stared at yesterday
Made my day peaceful and calm
Some drop, some float

The sand was cold as the sea
I wrote the name
And it flew away


Our Poem, by L, L, T and A

My mind was blown away
because of the Orison the other day

Help me God forget that thought
Let me think of what’s coming my way

The bubbles pop because of that dream I stopped
Drip drop drip drop the tablets fading away

This is a painting of the feelings we had when we were in the Orison room. The bubbles represent people’s thoughts going up to God. The waves represent rest and the darkness represent peace. The plasma ball represents God being everywhere.

Poem of Orison.

There I am the black curtain in front of me
I took my shoes off and went inside
I felt kind of tingly

A great big mat lay on the floor
I noticed it as I came through the door

In the corner of the room there was a box of sand
When I wiped a way a word it felt as if it was banned

Then there was a ball
Wow did it glow
It then proved that God is with you wherever you go

There was a bowl full of water on a table
I dropped the tablet in
Will my feelings go, maybe

Wow, what a sight as I watched the bubbles fly
It looked as if they were going in the sky

I sat down in front of pictures
They showed us hands
As I saw the names I thought
Wow God has a lot of fans

I saw a drawing board on the floor
I began to worry
As I write on there I wiped away my sorry

What a shame I have to leave
Please let me stay
Oh well God’s going to be with me all day