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Bereavement Allies

Helping schools create compassionate communities where bereaved families are supported and grief is understood, recognised and taught with confidence.

Living On Bereavement Allies

The Living On Bereavement Allies Programme supports schools to embed best practice in bereavement support, grief education and whole-school wellbeing.

Through training, resources and ongoing guidance, we’ll help you create an environment where no child, family member or staff member faces grief alone.

What does a Living On Bereavement Ally school look like?

Equip staff with the knowledge and confidence to:

  • Respond compassionately and appropriately to bereaved children/Young people and families
  • Gain an understanding of children’s grief and its impact on learning
  • To recognise the diverse ways grief can present, and how these differences are shaped by the nature of the loss and the relationship
  • Recognise when additional support may be needed
  • Empower them to have meaningful conversations about grief, death and dying
  • Inform them of where they can get bereavement supported and recognise their own needs

We’ll help you:

  • Develop or review your bereavement policy
  • Create clear procedures for what to do after a death, tailored to whether the person who has died is a pupil, teacher, or parent
  • Offer support to bereaved pupils, families and staff
  • Support you to embed a compassionate culture throughout the school
  • Build sustainable bereavement practices across the school

Support schools to:

  • Deliver age-appropriate grief education
  • Meet RSHE and wellbeing objectives
  • Normalise conversations about loss
  • Develop children’s emotional literacy, resilience and empathy
  • Create opportunities for reflection and remembrance when a member of the school community has died

Schools completing the programme will receive:

  • Living On Bereavement Ally Recognition Certificate
  • Accredited Ally Logo for promotional materials
  • Whole School Staff training session and resources
  • Meeting with Senior Leadership to review the support your school offers and how to develop whole-school bereavement approach
  • Bereavement Policy guidance and support that is bespoke to your school setting
  • SEND Training session for SENCO and team
  • We will obtain feedback from bereaved students and families to better understand their experience and needs,  this will support us to enhance existing support, and inform your development
  • Ongoing support from Living On
  • Access to support for staff teaching the Grief and Bereavement Curriculum
  • Recognition as a school committed to compassionate bereavement support.  Inclusion on the Living On Bereavement Allies section of our website, recognising your school’s commitment to compassionate bereavement support.
  • Access to networking and best practice opportunities with other Bereavement Ally schools

Why this matters

Every year thousands of children experience the death of someone important in their lives.

Schools have a unique opportunity to ensure bereaved children feel safe, understood and supported whilst helping all pupils develop a healthy understanding of grief and loss.

“Creating schools where no child navigates grief alone.”

Living On Bereavement Allies has been designed to be an affordable and accessible programme for schools.

What do you need to commit in order
to be a Bereavement Ally?

What do you need to commit in order to be a Bereavement Ally?

The only cost to participating schools is attendance at our Grief & Bereavement Curriculum Training Day, charged at £50 per teacher, per day. This should be any member of staff teaching these sessions

All other elements of the programme are provided free of charge.

As part of becoming a Living On Bereavement Ally School, we ask schools to support our work by holding one fundraising event each academic year. This helps us continue providing specialist bereavement support to children, young people and families within our community while enabling more schools to become grief-aware and bereavement-informed.

Together, we can create school communities where grief is understood, bereaved families are supported, and every bereaved child or young person is able to reach their full potential and given the opportunity to learn how to navigate their grief.

Become a Bereavement Ally

If you want to sign your school up please email us and we will arrange an initial phone or teams call with you.

Contact our team

Building compassionate school communities where grief is understood and no child faces loss alone