Our History
The Schools Prayer Network (SPN) began when Michael Philip saw the power of prayer in school first hand.
How it all started
The Schools Prayer Network (SPN) began when Michael Philip, a peripatetic music teacher working in Glasgow, saw the power of prayer in school first hand. One of the schools he worked for had an enormous vandalism problem.
The children in the Christian Union decided to pray about it and the vandalism stopped almost straight away. Michael felt that if prayer had this effect in one school, it could have similar effects in other schools in Glasgow and this was the beginning of The Schools Prayer Network.
As it began to expand, Michael asked CARE to take on the oversight of the network in England & Wales, and SU Scotland to administer prayer for schools in Scotland. As the network developed, prayer groups run by parents, teachers or local churches met to pray for the schools in their area, and registered with SPN. They may get together once a week, once a month or once a term and pray for one school or several. But all are convinced that prayer makes a difference.
In May 2009, SPN and CARE in conjunction with Youth for Christ, Scripture Union, New Generation and Churches Together England held ‘Pray for Schools Fortnight’, to encourage groups and churches to hold events to raise the profile of praying for schools and to encourage more groups to be formed to pray for schools. Around 20 events took place across the country.
Pray For Schools today
Following the success of the Pray for Schools fortnight, the Schools Prayer Network rebranded to become Pray for Schools, a partnership between CARE, Youth for Christ, Scripture Union, New Generation, Association of Christian Teachers and Churches Together England. The Scottish Schools Prayer Network rebranded to become Pray for Schools Scotland in January 2011.
This means, for instance, that a family moving into an area can link up with those who are already praying for a local school. And it means that anyone with a burden to pray for schools can get in touch to find out which schools in their local area are already covered, and which are not. The practical details as to who prays, where, when and how, vary widely.