We All Grieve, our specialist publication on supporting bereaved children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities, is a five-star winner in the SEND category of the Teach Primary Awards.
“Given the current global pandemic this book is not only thoughtful, accessible and well set out but also very timely. This resource is empowering and has many outstanding features,” praised the judges, a panel of primary experts and educators.
The UK’s first SEND specialist bereavement book, We All Grieve was written to highlight the need to include children with SEND in conversations about death – and to plug the huge void in specialist resources available in this area. There are an estimated 40,000 parentally-bereaved children in the UK with special educational needs and/or disabilities, yet parents, carers and professionals often don’t know what to say or how to support them. We All Grieve, written in collaboration with SEND expert Sarah Helton and thanks to funding from The True Colours Trust, aims to provide information and resources to give them the confidence to talk about death and support these ‘forgotten mourners’.
“Towards the end of the book there is a section that looks at how the school curriculum can develop to support bereavement and grief and we would urge all schools to read this and reflect upon their own curriculum,” commented the judges.
“As we are in the middle of a global pandemic many children will be returning to school having lost a friend, a relative, or for some a parent and as such this book will provide help and support for all school staff in engaging with these children at the appropriate level and in an appropriate manner. This book is to be commended and recommended to schools.”
In addition to this specialist resource, Winston’s Wish has teamed up with Sarah Helton again to run a one-day online training course specifically focused on supporting bereaved children and young people with SEND. Teachers and other professionals who attend will also receive a free copy of We All Grieve.
Taking place in November, the course gives an overview of how children with SEND grieve, the skills and techniques needed to support them and will help you develop a toolkit of resources. It will also cover the importance of bereavement policies and procedures in schools and how to develop a curriculum to teach children about life, death, bereavement and grief.
