Supporting schools to support bereaved children: Bereavement Resource Packs

When a child experiences the death of someone important to them, the adults around them often want to help but may not know what to say, what to do or where to find appropriate resources.

Schools have an important role to play. Children spend a big part of their daily lives at school, and teachers and other school professionals may be among the people who notice changes in a child's behaviour, relationships, concentration or emotional wellbeing following a bereavement.

Schools also have a role in helping children develop an understanding of death and bereavement before they are personally affected by it. This wider role for schools is particularly relevant from September 2026, when revised statutory Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) guidance in England includes content on bereavement. Schools have flexibility in how they deliver this content, but it provides an opportunity to consider both how bereavement is taught and how schools support children when a death happens.

Our Guy’s Gift Bereavement Resource Packs can support both of these areas of work. The packs provide age considered books, activities and information that schools can use to develop children's understanding of bereavement, as well as practical resources to support a child or young person following a death.

In 2020, Guy's Gift launched our Bereavement Resource Packs to help schools support children and young people following a death. Since then, the packs have developed alongside our wider work with schools and professionals across Coventry and Warwickshire.

What are Bereavement Resource Packs?

We provide separate Primary and Secondary Bereavement Resource Packs, with resources chosen to reflect the different ages and stages of development of children and young people.

The packs contain books, activities and information that school staff can use when supporting a bereaved child. There are also resources that can be shared with parents/carers. The aim is to give professionals practical resources they can use alongside their existing knowledge and skills. A book might provide a starting point for a conversation. An activity might give a child a way to explore feelings or memories without having to find the words themselves. Information for adults can help staff and parents/carers think about how best to respond and where to find further information or support.

There is no single way for a child to grieve, so the packs contain a range of resources rather than prescribing one particular approach.

How are the packs used?

Schools use the resources in different ways, depending on the child, their age and the circumstances of the bereavement.

A book might be shared with a child individually, used as part of a conversation or activity, or loaned to a family to use at home. Other resources can help children explore feelings, memories and some of the changes that can follow a death.

The packs can also be used as part of a school's wider approach to bereavement education. The new RSHE guidance provides an opportunity for schools to consider how they teach children about death and bereavement, as well as how they respond when a child in their school experiences a death. Our packs contain some great, age appropriate books that can support both aspects of this work.

Having appropriate resources readily available also means that school staff do not have to start searching for something suitable when a bereavement happens.

The packs are complemented by our monthly Support to Support drop-in sessions for school staff and other professionals. These sessions give professionals an opportunity to ask questions, discuss situations they are supporting and develop their knowledge and practical skills around childhood bereavement.

The two elements work alongside each other: the packs provide practical resources to use, while the drop-in sessions help professionals develop the knowledge and confidence to support grieving children.

We know from talking with schools that both the packs and the drop-in sessions are helping to build their confidence to support grieving children and young people. This is just what we hoped this project would create, way back in 2020.

Developing the packs

The Bereavement Resource Packs have not remained a fixed selection of resources since they were launched in 2020.

We regularly review what we include, drawing on our daily experiences working directly with bereaved children and young people, and with the professionals supporting them.

We also ask the people using the packs what they think. Feedback from schools has helped us know which resources are useful in practice, what is not being used and where there may be gaps. This has helped us make decisions about what we keep, replace or add to future packs.

Not every resource will be right for every child, so we aim to provide a variety of approaches and materials. This means the packs continue to develop rather than just being reproduced year after year.

Supporting schools across Coventry and Warwickshire

Since 2020, Bereavement Resource Packs have been provided to nearly 350 schools across Coventry and Warwickshire.

For some schools, a pack may be used to support one child following a particular bereavement. For others, resources may be used with several children over time, or shared with families as part of the school's wider response.

The resources remain with the school, meaning they can be available when another bereavement occurs in the future.

We have options for school staff to talk with us about the packs. Perhaps they’re new to school, or haven’t needed to make use of the pack before. We talk about what’s within the pack, and how to get the most from it to support a grieving child.

Part of a wider approach

The Bereavement Resource Packs are one part of Guy's Gift's wider work with schools and professionals. Our monthly Support to Support drop in sessions provide ongoing opportunities for professionals to increase their understanding of childhood bereavement and discuss the situations they are encountering in their work.

A professional might use a resource from a pack with a child, attend a Support to Support session to explore how best to respond, and then seek further support from Guy's Gift if the child or family needs more help.

Our aim is to make it easier for the adults already working with a grieving child to access the right information and support at the right time.

The people behind the packs

There’s a lot of work involved in keeping the packs stocked, relevant and ready to go to schools. There's a lot of people involved in making he packs as special as we truly believe they are too.

Our staff bring their experience of working with bereaved children and young people to the selection and development of the resources, while our volunteers provide valuable practical support in preparing packs, organising resources and often delivering the packs to school.

The project is also supported by the funders and donors who have enabled us to develop and maintain the packs over the years.

Together, this support allows us to provide something that schools can keep and use when they need it, rather than something that is available only at the point when a child is referred for direct bereavement support.

This a real community project, and we’ll take this opportunity to thank everyone involved from the project inception through to keeping it going 6 years later!

Looking ahead

The Bereavement Resource Packs have now been part of Guy's Gift's work with schools for several years. We will continue to review and develop them, drawing on our extensive experience of supporting bereaved children and young people, alongside feedback from the schools and professionals who use them.

The introduction of bereavement content within the statutory RSHE guidance gives schools another opportunity to think about how they prepare children to understand death and bereavement, as well as how they support children when a death happens.

We want our work with schools to continue to provide practical, accessible support. From resources that can be used with children and families, to opportunities for professionals to develop their knowledge and skills through our Support to Support sessions.

The Bereavement Resource Packs are one part of that wider approach. Helping schools feel better prepared to support children and young people when bereavement becomes part of their lives.

This really is how communities can come together to make sure children are supported to understand death and dying, and therefore be better equipped to process it when a loved one dies.