Prayer

Prayer has been traditionally described as ‘lifting up of the hearts and minds to God’, which means it involves our whole person – our head as well as our heart.

Our School Prayer

Our Pupil Chaplaincy Team worked with the Lay Chaplain from the Trust to write our School Prayer.

Prayer at St Thomas' provides opportunities for spiritual growth and development. In its simplest form, prayer is defined as “talking to God.” It is a personal time where we open our hearts to our Heavenly Father; bringing everything in our hearts to Him.

         

We aim to help our children value and respect the power of prayer and to use it to help strengthen their relationship with God. Children are introduced to and participate in different ways of praying:

• quiet reflection / meditation
• spontaneous prayer
• praying together
• writing our own prayers
• prayers through music
• learning traditional Catholic prayers

Daily prayers are said in class at the start of the day, before and after lunch and at the end of the day. 

Children learn the prayers of the church which we pray together in school, in church and in our own parishes with our families. 

Children are taught the following common prayers:

Prayer Booklets

Children have their own Prayer Booklets and use these in class to help them in learning these prayers.

stoc prayer book 25 26 final.pdf

Writing our own prayers

We encourage children to write their own prayers..

 

Prayer Areas

Each class has a prayer area which provides a focus for prayer in the classroom. 

Members of the Pupil Chaplaincy Team regularly monitor these areas and give feedback so that these areas enhance the mood and setting for periods of prayer and worship.