Soul Space has been very well received by pupils staff and parents across Reepham High and Litcham High Schools. The overwhelming feedback says it was a place of calm and peace. Taking the prayer space concept, Leeanne Rowland, head of RE at Reepham, researched how this would be best applied to her local high school. She asked chaplain Revd Keith Rengert plus Simon Fenn and other lay leaders, ministers, clergy for help. She herself was overwhelmed by the pupils reaction and said it was a truly humbling experience. Moving the space to Litcham High School the following week was an opportunity to share the space and again has received great feedback.
Activities included: a mindfulness corner, where students were invited to think about wars and natural disasters, processing these feelings by making and colouring paper cranes; a peace garden, for students to think about what peace means for them; sorry strings, where they could write things for which they are sorry; bubble tubes, where prayers can be written on sticky notes and stuck to the tube, the bubbles then representing the prayers ‘rising’ to God. These and many more activities were available for the students to sit, contemplate, and participate in if they so wished.
Dr Salas Iddi, head of RE at Litcham, said:
“Soul Space was a completed at Litcham to resounding success. The experience was amazing, rich and filled with several learning opportunities for students and participating colleagues.
We will like to express our sincere gratitude you all for assisting the department to negotiate and complete this highly valued enrichment intervention. As the experience has drawn very positive reviews from many of our participating students, we look forward to further collaborating with all parties to set up additional programmes in future.”
