Written from the personal experience of a parent and his three children,
Independent Thinking on Loss: A little book about bereavement for
schools details the ways in which schools can help their pupils come to
terms with the death of a parent.
A child loses a parent every twenty-two minutes in the UK. Childhood
bereavement brings with it a whole series of challenges for the children
involved challenges they will deal with all their lives. The research
shows teachers want to help, but don't know what to do.
This book is a start.
Written by Independent Thinking founder Ian Gilbert together with his
three children, Independent Thinking on Loss is a personal account of
the way educational institutions tried and succeeded, tried and failed
and sometimes didn't try at all to help William, Olivia and Phoebe come
to terms with the death of their mother.
Several months after their mother's death, BBC's Newsround aired a
brave and still controversial programme in which four children talked
about their losses. This prompted Ian and his children to sit down and
think about their own experiences and draw up a fifteen -strong list of
dos and don'ts that could help steer schools towards a better
understanding of what is needed from them at such a difficult time.
The warmth of reception of this handout led the family to expand their
advice and suggestions into what has now become Independent Thinking on
Loss, the proceeds of which will go to Winston's Wish, one of the UK's
leading children's bereavement charities.
Ian, William, Olivia and Phoebe encourage educators to view death and
bereavement as something that can be acknowledged and talked about in
school, and offer clear guidelines that will make a difference as to how
a school can support a bereaved child in their midst. They also explore
how conversations and actions little ones, whole-school ones, genuine
ones, professional ones, personal ones in the school setting can make an
awful scenario just that little bit easier for children to deal with.
Suitable for anyone working with children and young people in an
educational setting.
?Independent Thinking on Loss is an updated edition of The Little
Book of Bereavement for Schools (ISBN 9781845904647) and is one of a
number of books in the Independent Thinking On series from the
award-winning Independent Thinking Press.
