Being prepared

All schools are now required to have a policy detailing their response to major incidents and crises. Within this plan will be details on how your school will respond to each of the 4 main deaths that can affect your school community;

• The death of a pupil
• The death of the parent/carer or sibling of a school pupil
• The death of a teacher of other member of the school staff
• A tragedy affecting a section of the school community (eg a minibus crash)

How a school might deal with the expected death (due to a long-standing illness) of a member of the school community would also be a good inclusion to this plan.

Young people may also be affected deeply by other deaths of people important to them – a live-in grandparent or a child-minder for example.

It is always worth familiarising yourself with this plan, and thinking through how you might react in these situations (as best as it is possible to imagine such a thing). Having to talk to a class about a death will feel more familiar if you have mentally rehersed it before, and maybe researched on good language to use.