Webinar: Supporting bereaved children
On average, 1 in every 29 children will be bereaved of a parent. That’s one in every class. Yet many teachers receive no bereavement training and are unsure how to support grieving children and young people in their class. It’s vital that schools have a bereavement policy and procedure and teachers and staff understand how to support the grieving children and young people in their school.
In this collaboration between Winston’s Wish and the Chartered College of Teaching, Suzannah Phillips (Associate Director, Winston’s Wish) provided training and advice to teaching professionals on how to support a child dealing with loss and grief. In particular, we covered the following areas:
- Prevalence of childhood bereavement – put into context
- Usual reactions of grief
- Theories of grief
- Developmental variations of grief
- The roles that schools play in supporting bereaved children and young people
- Communication – with the child, family, staff, students and wider school community
- Helping children to understand their feelings
- When to seek more help
- Self-care
Attendees also had the opportunity to ask Suzannah questions in a Q&A towards the end of the session.
About Winston’s Wish
Winston’s Wish was the UK’s first childhood bereavement charity. We have been supporting bereaved children and young people since 1992 and we continue to lead the way in providing specialist child bereavement support services across the UK. Winston’s Wish provides emotional and practical bereavement support to children, young people and those who care for them. Our expert teams offer one off and ongoing bereavement support and we also provide online resources, specialist publications and training for professionals.
Website: https://www.winstonswish.org/supporting-you/support-for-schools/
Freephone helpline: 08088 020 021
Suzannah Phillips
For the past 7 years, Suzannah has been working at Winston’s Wish, recently moving into the role of Associate Director. Suzannah is responsible for designing and delivering training, leading the research and evidence department, developing services and leading on quality assurance across the organisation. Suzannah continues to work with bereaved children and their families, both face to face and on our national Helpline and provides clinical supervision to Helpline Practitioners. Suzannah has a particular interest in bereaved children under 5 and unexpected deaths.
