Children as young as three to be given lessons on how to cope with the death of a parent or sibling
- - Child Bereavement UK has launched a nationwide campaign
- - It aims to end the taboos around talking about death with children
By STEVE NOLAN
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Lessons in grief: Schoolchildren as young as three will be given lessons in how to deal with the death of a loved one (file picture)
Schoolchildren as young as three are to be given lessons on how to deal with death and grief.
Teachers will use elephants to help children understand the concepts telling them that when an elephant dies the rest of the herd is sad and gathers round the body.
They will also use the idea that an elephant never forgets to talk about memories of loved ones who have died.
Around 550 primary schools have signed up to include the topic of death on the curriculum, part of a UK-wide campaign to stop discussing death with youngsters being seen as a taboo.
The campaign has been launched by the Child Bereavement UK charity.
Jonathan Perry, headteacher at Lambrook School near Ascot, Berkshire, said that children at his school handled the classes well.
He told The Independent: 'Often children are much better at dealing with matters like this than adults.
'Staff have been so impressed about the mature way children have discussed such matters.'
Anne Chalmers, chief executive of Child Bereavement UK said that some parents may be concerned that their children are to discuss death in class.
But she added that it would benefit families should they suffer a bereavement.
She said: 'The idea behind the campaign is to raise awareness about how these issues can be talked about in a non-threatening way.'
Around 24,000 children in the UK lose a parent every year, with more than one child in 30 experiencing the death of an immediate family member and one in 16 losing a close friend.
Example: Teachers will use the idea that elephants grieve for dead members of their herd by gathering around the body
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