Fifteen pupil chaplains in Year 5 and Year 6 at St John’s CofE Primary School visited St James’ Church in Taunton on Thursday.
Joining pupil chaplains from other local schools, the children gathered for a day of reflection, songs, prayers and discovering new things.
Here is the school’s full report …
The day started off with making pupil chaplain badges for themselves, and some students decided to make some for the staff attending.
They then all gathered and were welcomed by members of the Diocese team and started discussing what being a pupil chaplain meant to them and how they can make an impact in school.
Some students were then chosen to take part in a fun game of hide and seek where they had to find parts of Mr Potato Head, remember that the final piece will always look different because we are all unique and loved by God.
Every child received a booklet for them to complete throughout the day, with space to reflect and finish at school during their time as a Pupil Chaplain. The children then took part in separate activities, with one other school.
The chaplains were then able to get creative by thinking of what makes a good pupil chaplain and made a piece of word art using their ideas
St John’s students thought about the importance of their school values (respect, service, compassion, friendship, and endurance), the school parable and school vision of sharing joy and hope with their community.
The students were able to then create their own version of themselves with paper and colourful paper.
Activity two involved creating their own story by each child saying a few words, before the next person continued the story. The children certainly became very dramatic with their story soon developed many twists and tales!
The next activity before lunch, proved to be the trickiest as they had to work as a team to move a bottle across the room using only string tied together.
Some groups soon worked out it was about being patient and gentle and soon moved on to drawing themselves as a group with a shared pen-again controlled by multiple strings.
Before lunch, everyone gathered again and the Year 6 students stood up in front of everyone to share their class prayer which they read before lunch every day.
After a well-earned lunch break, and a quick run around, the pupil chaplains moved on to their final activity. This time the children drew around their hands and answered questions with one word which they added to their handprint.
They then held these up and remembered that God is always there to answer their questions and to listen. They were all then given a small stone to decorate, which were then gathered to pray with.
Each child held a different stone and responded to prayers while thinking about others, including those with them in church, and back at home and school.
The day finished with coming together again in song and prayer and gave the children a wonderful way to reflect on everything they had experienced that day and reflect on how they may use it back at school while completing their chaplains’ roles.
The children and staff had a wonderful day, and the experience will be remembered by all for a very long time.
Helena Power, who attended the day as St John’s School Chaplain, said: “The children, as always, made us extremely proud with their positive attitude to meeting new people and experiencing new things, and by overcoming fears by reading out their prayers in front of others.
“This is a wonderful collection of pupil chaplains, and once again they have proved to be brilliant ambassadors of our school. We are really looking forward to seeing how this role will shape the year ahead for them all.
The children remarked that some of their favourite parts were decorating the stones, and the pupil chaplain cutouts as they represented them.
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Around Wellington’s School News is sponsored by Wellington School.