Eleven pupil chaplains in Year 5 visited Taunton Minster Church,  St Mary Magdalene on Tuesday 12th November.

Joining pupil chaplains from other local schools, the children gathered for a day of reflection, prayers and discovering new things. 

The day started with a quiz to get to know each other by finding someone with common interests, likes and dislikes, this included sharing similar names, eye colour and favourite sports. This was a great way for all the children to meet each other. 

The children then took part in separate activities. While walking around the church they completed a seek and find factsheet, looking at all the carvings in the stone, taking turns on the lectern and trying their best to count all the 200 angels.

The chaplains were then able to get creative by thinking of the different responsibilities their new role as pupil chaplain creates and created their own prayers. St John's students thought about the importance of their school values (respect, service, compassion, friendship, and endurance), the school parable and vision of sharing joy and hope with their community. All these elements were then added to their prayers, which was shared later in the day during a collective worship. All schools gathered for this service, so they could share new prayers and join in song. Everyone then made a heart cross with pipe cleaners and beads, with each colour bead representing God, family, those important in our lives, ourselves, and a prayer.

The service 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.

Children and staff had a wonderful day at Mary Magdalene and the experience will be remembered by all for a very long time.

"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 the largest cohort of pupil chaplains our school has had, 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” said Mrs Cook (TA) who attended the day along with Helena Power (St Johns school chaplain).