During Holy Week many churches took part in The Easter Experience, an interactive way for children and young people to explore the Easter story.
At All Saints Church in Oakhill pupils from the local primary school were invited to join in. As part of their school day the pupils visited the church and met people from the Easter story such as Mary Magdalene and Peter. They were able to ask the characters what it might have been like being with Jesus. They were also guided through the story of Palm Sunday and were invited to place a wooden figure along the palm path to signify how close they might stand to Jesus.
There were also lots of activities for them to do. They made crosses from clay and learnt about significance of the cross. They then squashed the crosses to make leaves and flowers to signify new life and the change that the cross makes. These clay creations were put in an Easter Garden at the front of church and stayed there until Easter Sunday.
The children shared their thoughts of the experience. “I found it very fun because we got to do lots of different things all related to Easter and they were all completely different to each other so they were funner” (year 4 student). Another asked ‘Has today given you anything to think about?’ replied that “Easter changes really quickly, changes happen a lot quicker than you expect them to.” (year 4 student)