Prayer is an important and valued part of our school life. Prayer reflects our school vision as well as promoting the values of our community and supporting the annual rhythms of the liturgical calendar. We create opportunities for personal as well as for communal prayer. Each classroom has a reflection area which is a focus for individual or group prayer. Also, around the school we have prayer spaces, which children can visit to pray, reflect, be quiet or share thoughts with their friends. 

As a school, we have a pattern of prayer. We pray together as a school every day during Collective Worship, as classes before lunch and at the end of each school day. Prayer can emerge from a wide range of learning contexts and we teach our children that they can pray at any time, anywhere; God is with them always. 

Children are taught some of the rich heritage of traditional prayer as well as more contemporary offerings from a variety of Christian denominations. We also encourage children to recognise that prayer is about a personal relationship with God. When sharing traditional prayers in our community we reflect upon the words used and explore the meaning of them in a variety of ways. 

The digital version of St. Mary’s Prayer Book was created to: 

• reduce the amount of paper we use in school; 

• give access to our prayer resources for parents and the wider community;  

• enable us to extend and expand the prayers we use (including those written by children); 

• and enrich the prayer and worship experience of our community.