The "Prayer Spaces in Schools" coalition is now quite a few groups that are leading or promoting work very similar to ORISONschools.org.uk. Rachel Warwick has been working with them to encourage more and more of this kind of work in schools. Some is lead by pupils, some by teachers, and some by Christians from local churches.

At Soul Survivor 2010 the whole coalition is working together to lead "the Furnace" and other prayer spaces and to promote the approach among the young people and youth workers at the festival. Come and see us in "the Furnace" or the "Toolshed".

Orison (school prayer space) will be open for the public in the Kings of Wessex School in Cheddar this Sunday. We open during the festival from 10am to 2pm. If you are local come and join in the festival and pop in to pray and see the written prayers and questions left by the children and young people during our week in the school.

The latest blog and examples of prayers and questions by the young people can be found here

Since we started Orison almost a year ago, I've been blogging stories and photos here to keep an archive record of what's been happening and also as a place to share the stories with whoever's interested.

The exciting news is that the Orison website now has its very own blog space. At http://orisonschools.org.uk/news you'll find up to date stories of Orison prayer spaces in schools, information about available resources and anything else which might be relevant. There's also a space where you can read twitter updates tagged with #orison for brief news as it happens.

Anita joined us on our last day at Pilgrim's Way school and then went back to the Evangelical Alliance press office and wrote up her experience of Orison. You can find the article here.

Rach Warwick, who coordinates Orison, is very excited about how many prayer spaces are now happening in schools. She is now part of a coalition that meet to discuss how to share the idea with others. Another member of that group is Phil Togwell of 24/7Prayer. He has just posted this on his blog! It is a report of an orison like space at a secondary school in North London this week.

Also this week, Rach and others are leading orison in Pilgrims Way Primary School in Farnham. This is part of an ongoing programme with the Farnham Assemblies and Schools Team to run Orison in all the local primary schools that will invite them over the next year or so. It has been a wonderful week and both children and staff have been talking about the impact on their lives of having the prayer space on site.

It was lovely being part of Salesian School in Chertsey for a week as we lead the ORISON prayer spaces. We've just received a fabulous letter from James Kibble (the head) which you can read here

The rough edit of a quick tour of the ORISON display at Soul Survivor 2009 is below. If it doesn't show click here to go to it.

On behalf of the Head and all the Leadership Team, can I just say a huge thank you for the amazing prayer experience that you have given us as staff, parents and for the students. It will have a totally transformational effect for many people. Your dedication, hard work and witness to your faith is awe-inspiring. We are so appreciative of all that you have done for our school community, for all the unsociable hours, for the energy and strength you’ve injected to our spiritual life. Thank you so much, God bless,

Deputy Head Teacher, Salesian RC School, Chertsey

From Rachel Warwick

We spent last week running an Orison prayer space at Salesian High School in Chertsey. Here are just some of the comments and stories from the week.