Childhood bereavement: The role of school leadership in developing inclusive learning environments
Written by: Alexandra Sewell and Daniel Thacker-Smith
7 min read
DR ALEXANDRA SEWELL, SENIOR LECTURER, UNIVERSITY OF WORCESTER, INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION
DANIEL THACKER-SMITH, DEPUTY HEADTEACHER, E-ACT SHENLEY ACADEMY
Bereavement, loss and grief
As with most common psychological experiences, bereavement is subject to varying socio-cultural and academic definitions. A critical distinction between competing definitions is that bereavement follows the death of a person with whom the bereaved had a close relationship.
Whilst some argue that bereavement occurs simply when a child has lost someone or something significant to them and is attempting to adapt (Worden, 1996), two of the leading reviews of childhood bereavement centralise the status of experiencing bereavement because there has been a death of someone close to the individual (Stroebe et al., 2008; McLaughlin et al., 2019). The death of an important person may be expected, such as after a critical illness, or unexpected, such as due to a fatal accident (McLaughlin et al., 2019).
Under thi
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