Year 7 embarked on an adventure to Neasden Temple, London on Wednesday 9th & Thursday 10th March. We had the opportunity to find out how Hindus worship their God and by visiting this temple we could experience their place of worship.

On arrival, my first reaction was how beautiful the building was and its size, it was huge! The design was very different to any other place of worship I have been to before.

After going through security, we were asked to remove our shoes to show respect before entering the main hall of worship. We watched a short film describing how and why the temple was made. We found out that it took 3 years to build with marble sent from Italy to India, hand carved in India and then shipped to the UK. This information helped us to complete our first worksheet.

We went upstairs to the main part of the temple to take part in the worship service where they sang a hymn. We were then directed to another room, where we saw religious statues. We were given a second worksheet to complete whilst looking around the Hindu exhibition. I found it interesting to see how the Hindu culture came to be what it is now.

This was a really interesting day trip. I was glad to be able to experience and gain knowledge about the Hindu way of life and how they worship God.

- Alicia, Year 7

The Neasden trip was an amazingly cultured trip, learning many different and very interesting facts about the largest Hindu temple in Britain.

At the start of the trip we all gathered together by the bus stops to await our journey. Luckily we all got to choose who we sat next to. After the "fun" bus confusion we were allowed to stop half way to have our snacks. As we were really excited to see the temple, we swiftly got back onto the coach and drove all the way over to north London. On the way we could see the amazing figure of Wembley (as it was so close to us).

Once we arrived at our destination, there were gasps everywhere as we all didn't expect something so creative to be made in the space of just three years. Once we got inside we had our photo taken, we then had to go through a security scanner, (just in case anything odd came inside). The reason why we had to take our shoes off was because as the man explained to us: the shoes are made from leather that comes from a cow, and the Hindus don't allow that.

Swiftly after our arrival we entered a large hall ready with a short video on how this amazing design was created. It explained that they had 1400 men volunteering to carve inside the limestone features to create the building. The stone came all the way over from Bulgaria. The reason why they chose to bring the stone from Europe was because it is a lot cheaper than having to order it all the way over from India.

After the lecture we all went upstairs to a live service. There was great music and so many features, like the models to search for and read about. Soon after, we had to attempt to finish a booklet about the temple itself and the Hindu religion. This was really helpful because it gave me a Hindu's perspective of how they worship and what they worshipped about. We then had some time to look around ourselves. We learnt that the building was in fact dedicated to: Pramukh Swarmi Maharaj. We also learnt that the full name of the Mandir is: Shri Swaminarayan Mandir.

Once we had finished that we had time to go to the gift shop to buy a small souvenir. After that amazing experience we left to go onto the bus and eat our lunch. We arrived slightly early so it was technically home time. I really enjoyed that experience and I would recommend people go. It was a really fun and cultural trip.

- James, Year 7