At SEHA, we are entirely run by volunteers but we do our best to accommodate schools who wish to visit us, depending on availability.

We can normally accommodate up to 100 children and we ask that the ratio of adults to children is approximately 1:10 depending on the age and needs of the children.

Our visits usually take place in the morning and last for around two hours. We ask groups to arrive at around 10.15am so that the children can catch the end of our morning prayer session. This is usually followed by a short talk about Hinduism, along with a question and answer session. The children are then invited to come up close to the statues of our Gods & Goddesses and we finish off with another short question and answer session. We wind up around 11.45pm in order to allow children to return to school in time for lunch.

 

As we are a fully functional place of worship, there are some rules that we ask all visitors to follow:

  1. Shoes must be taken off downstairs and placed in the shoe racks provided. Children should ensure they wear socks on the day that will help to protect their feet when walking up to and from, and around, the main prayer hall.
  2. The lifts must only be used by those who are unable to climb the stairs – but NEVER in the event of a fire. Your host should be informed so that use of the lift is properly supervised.
  3. Adults must accompany children who need to go to the toilet during the session.
  4. We ask that adults pay particular attention to the housekeeping rules at the start of the session, particularly evacuation procedures.
  5. We ask all adults to encourage children to maintain silence for the first few minutes of their visit, so as not to disturb the end of the morning prayer session. Once the prayers are complete, the children will have plenty of opportunity to ask questions and converse with each other.
  6. Feel free to take as many photographs as you like. If you would like us to share pictures of your visit on our website and social media then please email them to us. In the interests of safeguarding, we will not share any pictures unless they have been approved by the organiser of the visit and we ask you to seek approval from the organiser before you post them onto your social media feeds.

 

Should you have any further enquiries then please feel free to email us and we will do our best to answer your questions.