Talking about death and bereavement with children is difficult, yet for schools it is often unavoidable. RSHE guidance requires teachers to address change, loss and grief, and many will support a bereaved child at some point in their career.

Read here and download a story-based resource developed in collaboration with The Story Project. Our three-lesson mini unit supports teachers to explore bereavement, empathy and peer support in a sensitive, age-appropriate and classroom-ready way.

In November 2025, I returned to the WAY (Widowed And Young) community to share an update for Children’s Grief Awareness Week (17–23 November). The idea for The Marfleet Foundation began with our personal story, reflecting how I used books and crafts to help my three boys stay connected to their Daddy after his death. Two years on, ongoing research, practice and personal reflection have strengthened my commitment to working with schools across the UK to help ensure children and young people receive effective, compassionate bereavement support.

In November 2023, I shared my story with the WAY (Widowed And Young) community. As a primary school teacher, my instinct has always been to use books and crafts when supporting children, and after my husband Tom died, I turned to them to help my own children stay connected to their Daddy. Four years into our grief-world, this is our story – shared in the hope that it may help others supporting young children through loss.

This year, I had the absolute honour of taking part in a research project with St Mary’s University exploring how picture books can support meaningful conversations about death, grief, and loss with young children.

The timing couldn’t have been more relevant, with grief education now a confirmed inclusion in the Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) statutory guidance for schools published this month.

In this blog, I share my thoughts and reflections on the part I played in the project and how I believe well-chosen picture books can create safe, inclusive spaces for children to explore difficult emotions, build empathy, and make sense of bereavement - long before they may experience it themselves.

In April 2025, Professor Anna Lise Gordon, Co-director of the Centre of Wellbeing in Education at St Mary’s University, Twickenham, and I presented at the Pedagogy in Action Conference.

It was an honour to be given the opportunity to present my personal story on how schools can support bereaved children which you can read and/or listen to in this blog.

This is my story.

Out of all the goals in life to aspire to, knowing how to support grieving children in schools isn’t likely to be at the top of anyone’s list. It wasn’t on mine when I began training to become a primary school teacher in the mid-nineties. But life has a way of leading us down unexpected paths, and for me, it’s where my professional and personal journeys have converged.

The early days of bereavement can feel like being uprooted from your normal life. Like the fence with a No Entry sign in the photo, it marks the divide from what you knew. But there’s a gate— with proper support, a bereaved child can return to school life and begin to navigate their grief.

This blog offers schools ideas for supporting a newly bereaved child's return to school.

Through a connection with the Centre for Wellbeing in Education at St Mary’s University, London, two of my boys were asked to reflect on their experience returning to school after their dad’s death. This reflection was featured in The Art of Dying Well podcast.

Presented by James Abbot, the podcast aims to make death and dying something we can talk about openly without discomfort or fear.

To better support bereaved children in school, we must first hear from those who know what it is like. The podcast hears from recently bereaved children, adults who were bereaved as children, and those working in education as to what they think is important or most impactful at such a difficult time.

This is the first blog in my series of guides for widowed parents of primary school-aged children.

With a surprising statistic that 80% of teachers receive no training in how to support bereaved children (Child Bereavement UK 2018), I suggest a guide for a conversation between a surviving parent and their child’s new class teacher at the beginning of a new school year as a positive step towards supporting a bereaved child at school.

I have had the privilege of writing this blog for Pedagogy in Action through St Mary's University, Twickenham, London.

Their mission is to advance education through continuing reflective practice and professional development in all educational contexts.

Best practice is to speak openly and honestly with children about death using clear and direct language. As educators, we should view it not as a difficult conversation, but as an important one.

This blog post provides educators with guidance on the language to use around death in schools and offers suggestions for preparing to have those important conversations.