Prayer is central to everything that we do as a Catholic school. We regularly ask our children to give their opinions about prayer life in school. Here are their most recent responses to our questions.

Can you tell me about a really good prayer liturgy/Assembly you had recently?

"The assembly, Collective worship, School of sanctuary, Elma assembly, Golden book assembly"

"School Mass, HT assembly on Advent, Elma assembly, School Of Sanctuary assembly, Golden book assembly, Collective Worship in class"

"We had a immaculate conception mass a few days ago when we: Prayed for the deceased Prayed for Mary Prayed for ourselves

"We had a immaculate conception mass a few days ago when we prayed for the deceased, prayed for Mary, prayed for ourselves"

"Mass, head teacher assembly, RE lesson, carol concert, church, class worship,"

"On Monday we had a whole school assembly all about Advent. On Wednesday we had a child led collective worship which was so reverent Mass, head teacher assembly, carol concert"

"We had a great assembly about the peace, hope and joy candles. It was a was a whole school assembly. I also enjoyed the class worship ,carols mass led by year 5."

"We had a assembly about the joy candle which is a rose coloured candle. We also had a mass at church about it too."

"Mass, Headteacher Assembly, Deputy Assembly, Advent Assembly, Carol Concert."

What ways of praying do you know?

"Going to Mass, RE lessons, collective worship, HT assembly, hymn assembly, carol practice, prayer partners, Mary chapel, Bible group, Peace garden, Mary garden."

"Going to Mass, collective worship, RE lessons assembly and hymn practice, prayer partners and praying in the Mary chapel as well as bible group lead by liturgy leaders, peace garden!

"I know how to pray out loud, in my head, with a rosary, Prayers from prayer bag etc."

"Rosary beads, singing prayers from prayer bag, Our Father, pausing"

"Put your hands together and close your eyes, rosary beads, singing prayers from the prayer bag, Our Father, Hail Mary"

"Quietly and peacefully the Our Father, the holy trinity."

"Using Rosary Beads, Using Fingers"

What helps you to pray?

Is there anything that gets in the way of your prayer?

"When someone decides to be silly or something loud."

"Music because I can’t concentrate while doing a prayer and ignore someone talking"

"Loud noises, people talking to me"

"People talking, People fidgeting"

"Sometimes when it is noisy."

How can we help?

"Providing time for prayer, spending time alone, prayer partners, bringing Elma."

"You can spend sometime alone providing time time for quiet prayer prayer partners and Elma the dog"

"Going to the peace garden"

"Close the door, go to a peaceful place,"

"By telling the teacher, moving places"

"We can block out the noise and move to a quiet place also ignore them"

"Encourage people to pray with you"

"We can help by going to a quiet place or focusing very hard."

Have you taken part in planning & preparing a time of prayer?

"Yes in collective worship and doing our job of liturgy leading bible group, leading Mass"

"Leading Mass, bible group"

"Collective worship a lot, altar serving, leading mass, bible group, liturgy leader, mini vinnie, family mass in church"

"Yes, when I do collective worship with people."

"Yes, because I did class worship and assembly"

"Collective worship, readings in mass"

Why do prayer cloths change colour throughout the year?

"Different liturgical seasons start eg. Purple for advent and lent, green for ordinary time, red for feast days and Pentecost, white for Christmas, pink for Gaudete Sunday"

"Because there are different seasons"

"They change because during the year we have a liturgical year which are Advent: Purple, Ordinary time: Green,  Lent: Purple, White: Christmas/Easter, Blue: Mary"

"To show the liturgical times, white cloth means Christmas"

"Because so we don’t have one cloth all year round and because each month have a special symbol and so all the special stuff doesn’t mean the same thing"

"To represent the different types of calendars purple = Advent and Lent, white = Easter and Christmas, blue = the month of Mary, green = ordinary time"

"So we know what different calendars like the purple cloth"

"Because there are different liturgical seasons in the church calendar."

What prayers do you know?

"Our Father, Hail Mary, Angelus, Eternal Rest, apostles creed, Rosary."

"Hail Mary, Our Father, Lunch prayer, Before we go home prayer, Confession prayer, eternal prayer, The Angelus prayer"

"Glory be, Our Father, Hail Mary, confession prayer, Magnificat, The Angelus"

"Hail Mary, Our Father, The Angelus, Our school prayer, glory be, lunch time prayer, end of the day prayer, Magnificat, eternal rest"

"The Magnificat, The Our Father, The Hail Mary, The Angelus, Our School Prayer, Glory Be, The Eternal rest."

What parts of prayer time do you most enjoy?

"Collective worship when we pass around the stone or crucifix to say who we want to pray for I also enjoy singing it is another form of praying"

"Talking to God"

"Every second of it!"

"Mass, assembly, carol practice, Class worship"

"The praying because it calms my mind and makes me reverent"

"When we do a silent prayer."

"Being able to talk about my feelings and thoughts."

Have you been inspired to live out the message of a recent assembly? How?

"School of sanctuary- helping those who are less fortunate assembly. Advent assembly- to make a promise or prayer and put it on the advent tree. Carol practice - spread the good news through the readings."

"Yes, I’ve been inspired of the Gospel to live a life with God"

"Yes to spread the word of God"

"Yes, because last assembly we did a prayer of hope to bring hope to the world"

"Yes, it made me want to change it was so true"

"Yes, because the message of joy and watch with Mary through the countdown of Jesus"

"Yes ,because it made me know how to respect the world."

"Yes, by believing in Gods word."

Is there anything else you would like to tell us?

"We follow our gospel values and live out our mission statement, we are encouraged to be the best we can be, the opportunities we get to lead our school. We get to lead people on prayer. We get to learn about our world through our school teams such as liturgy leaders and caritas ambassadors. We also fill out shoe boxes so people less fortunate then us."

"I love to pray"

"May God Bless You!"

"I like doing prayers and you don’t have to be Christian to pray"

"God is always there and when he calls you ,you answer him. Jesus is loving you every minute of every day. He loves you."