The OLICAT Trust Chaplaincy Team is inviting you to join our schools in creating a Garden of Hope

One thing we have enjoyed whilst being stuck at home during this time of lockdown are the flowers in our gardens and in the countryside. So much hope comes from seeing the bleak and empty garden of the wintertime blossom into a beautiful, colourful mass of flowers and plants!

There is always hope...

We are inviting you all to help us create our own gardens of hope for when we return to school. This expression can take many different forms. Choose from the ideas listed below or you may have a better idea! You may want to choose more than one idea.

What do I have to do?

• Choose your favourite flower (templates below)
• Write/type how you are feeling right now.
• Write a poem about the good things at home during lockdown
• Write a prayer for those in need
• Write a personal prayer
• Give thanks…
• Show gratitude…
• Give a shout out…
• Take a photograph and explain why it represents the time of lockdown for you.
• Express what you would like to see happening in the future

If you would like to use different fonts, colours, clip art etc., – in fact anything to make your flower stand out – please do! This activity is about your thoughts but you may also like to encourage your family to express their thoughts too. You could send in a family collection of thoughts and flowers. Each expression of thought should be displayed on a flower template before sending.

Send your finished flower and expressions of hope to your school office.

Looking further ahead, the printed versions of your thoughts, prayers and poems will be displayed back at school in a way which will connect our recent past experiences with the present moment and all our hope for the future too!

We look forward to sharing our Garden of Hope with you here shortly!