Picture: Sr Helen Culhane and Professor Niamh Hourigan, Vice President Academic Affairs, MIC
Death is one of the most difficult subjects to address in school. It is
inevitable that during a teacher’s career the school community will be
affected by death in some form or another.
Teachers, SNA’s and all school staff are in a unique position to support
children in their class or school community. School provides routine,
stability, security, and continuity.
As teachers, you can make a significant and lasting difference to bereaved
pupils by acknowledging their loss and allowing them to talk about their
experiences, if they want to, and by listening and responding to a pupil’s
spoken and unspoken messages.
You can have a lifelong impact by creating an environment which
encourages communication, healing, and support.
Children often lack the ability to find the words to describe the emotions
that they feel.
About Death is a resource for all teachers, SNA’s and all school staff to help
support their students of primary school age through grief and loss.
Most children who have been bereaved do not need specialised support
from an outside agency.
The Children’s Grief Centre is available to come to your school to give
guidance on how the school might be prepared to respond to the
challenges of death, dying, grief and loss.
Teacher’s workshops can be booked with Children’s Grief Centre.
The Toolkit was launched on September 14th by Professor Niamh Hourigan, Vice President Academic Affairs, Mary Immaculate College, Limerick. Teachers and SNA’s from the midwest region attended the launch which was a huge success and we hope this will be a continued resource for teachers in the future.
