THERE was nothing restrained about the children who came to "Pray through Easter" at St Andrew's, Hadfield, in Derby diocese. They had learned to shout the words "Hosanna!" and "Alleluia!" as they imagined welcoming Jesus into Jerusalem through St Andrew's porch, and they came into church very noisily, the Priest-in-Charge, the Revd Felicity Walters, says.

Groups came from all three primary schools in the parish during the two weeks before Easter to learn about different types of prayer against the backdrop of the Easter story. Once inside, their noisy entrance of praise was quietened to "Just loving and being loved", which explored contemplative prayer, and also involved smelling scents after hearing the story of the woman with the expensive perfume.

They then moved under the chancel arch, which bore the words "Remembering together and saying thank you", and gathered round the altar to learn about eucharistic worship, before going to a dark corner decorated with branches to remember Jesus's darkest night, and to light candles signifying their own "help" prayers.

"Saying sorry and being forgiven" had them putting their own mistakes, written down, through a shredder, before gathering by the empty tomb to sing more praise.

A large number of the congregation were involved in setting up, welcoming, and leading the groups, and offering refreshments. "It felt like a whole-church project," Mrs Walters says, "and it was such a privilege for us to be able to talk about prayer, and to give all the children a chance to try it out for themselves. And it was really heartening to hear that they talked about it so much on returning to school."