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DonateGrief Education in Schools
The Department for Education (DFE) published revised guidance in 2025, therefore loss, grief and bereavement will be mandatory and included in Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) in schools from September 2026. This mandatory training within the curriculum is key to preparing and supporting children facing loss.
Children and young people experience many forms of loss — from bereavement to family changes, illness, disrupted friendships, and wider instability. These experiences can significantly affect emotional wellbeing, academic achievement, confidence and behaviour. Research shows that unresolved childhood bereavement can increase the risk of poor mental health, lower attainment, and vulnerability to difficulties later in life. Schools play a crucial role in recognising these challenges and offering the stability and reassurance pupils need.
Yet training for educators on how to respond to grief, loss and emotional distress is often limited, despite schools managing significant and competing pressures. Our programme is designed to bridge this gap by equipping staff with the skills, confidence and practical tools to support pupils compassionately and effectively.
Delivered by our specialist educators and counselling team, our grief and loss education programme helps teachers understand how loss affects children at different ages and stages, how to create emotionally safe environments, and how to respond to both bereavement and the wider range of losses children face. The programme also supports schools in strengthening their bereavement policies and developing lesson plans that normalise conversations about grief, resilience and emotional wellbeing.
The training will include (but can be tailored):
- What grief and bereavement can look like for children and teenagers
- How loss can affect emotions, behaviour, learning and daily life
- Ways to create a grief‑aware, supportive school environment
- Practical tools, tips and communication approaches that staff can use
- Understanding wider forms of loss beyond bereavement
- How to support pupils with different backgrounds, identities and experiences.
This offer is available to a limited number of schools, so please register your interest early.
- 3 June – 9.30am to 12.30pm – online training for nominated school staff
- September – Inset training is available in school for all staff
- November – Pastoral leads training event to be held at Compton Hall, Wolverhampton.
Please discuss your individual requirements with a member of our team, by calling 0300 323 0250 or emailing learning@comptoncare.org.uk to register your interest and leave your contact details for follow up.
Thanks to generous support from the Birchfield Trust, we are able to offer this training free of charge to schools within our catchment area. Their funding enables Compton Care’s specialist bereavement and counselling team to deliver and evaluate a programme without any cost to participating schools. This ensures that all children and their families can benefit from better‑prepared, more confident educators who understand how to support them through loss and helps schools build resilient, sustainable support systems that last beyond the life of the project.