Teaching about death and bereavement

Loss and bereavement are an inevitable part of our lives, and it is important to prepare children and young people for this experience.

We can teach this pro-actively, as well as allow natural discussion about death as it arises in everyday life. We can encourage children to see death as part of the natural life cycle.

Children and young people say that they want to learn about it -yet we are not teaching them some valuable skills to help them deal with the most certain experience.

A questionnaire with about 100 high school students revealed:

97.6% thought that death and bereavement should be taught in school
(3.4% in EY, 25.4% in Primary, 86.4% in high school)
76.3% said they know nothing or a little bit about bereavement
93% experienced the death of a pet
56% experienced the death of a grandparent
7% the death of a parent
4 % the death of a sibling
26% the death of a aunt/uncle/cousin
9% the death of a friend
37% the death of someone else
54% had attended a funeral
61% felt confident in supporting a bereaved friend
91% wanted to learn about how they can support a bereaved friend

'If you could maybe learn about the process of grief, that would be quite good, because I didn't understand about the process of grief, at all, I didn't even, now I look back, I definitely went through every single process, but at the time I was doing my thing, I didn't realise, and you know, I didn't realise.'

'Because at high school, it is going to happen, we lost three students, so I think it's going to happen, and I think the earlier schools can teach younger people about what's going to happen, and how to deal with things, and what could happen, the better it would be, to prepare them and that, when it does happen.'

'I think education is just the key, you have got to understand it, otherwise it drives you crazy. I think the idea of teaching children about grief and stuff, would be quite good.'