New national resources to help schools working with bereaved children and young people have been developed with help from the Diocese of Truro.

With schools set it re-open in the coming months, education leaders and teachers have recognised that many may be returning grieving and traumatised. The resources are aimed at supporting head teachers and schools as they take on the task of helping children and young people to deal with grief and to acknowledge loss of opportunity and missed rites of passage.

The first resource ‘Never the Same, grief and bereavement resource for school leaders’ has just been launched. The Diocese of Truro’s Education team were heavily involved in producing it.

Katie Fitzsimmons, the diocese’s Director of Education, said: “I am delighted to have been part of the team who produced it and hope that it will offer support to our head teachers in challenging times of bereavement, but also as we help children and young people acknowledge loss of opportunity and missed rites of passage.  The coming months, in which we may start to see children and young people returning to school, will see them coming back to the places where they know they are cared for and where they feel safe.  This will be our chance to help them as they recover their emotional wellbeing and start to re-adjust to life outside lockdown.  I hope that this resource will help school leaders to start navigating this. I am hugely proud of this resource – practical and rooted in biblical support.”

Other versions of the resource aimed at parents and clergy are currently being produced and will be available soon. The new resource is available to download on the Truro diocese website, along with other bereavement resources, here.

The work is part of a wider initiative from the national Church called Faith at Home. More information is available on the Church of England Faith at Home website.