School pack · Class teachers, form tutors and teaching assistants

Classroom activities

Gentle, whole-class activities that give grief somewhere to go, for every phase.

Offer these to the whole class, not just the bereaved pupil, and always make taking part optional. Check with the family first if an activity is about the person who died. Many pupils carry losses you don't know about, so keep tissues, a quiet corner and a follow-up adult to hand.

Memory board

Ask first
Check with the family and the bereaved pupil before making a board about someone who died.
Make it together
Pupils add drawings, words, photos or memories. Older pupils might write a single line each.
Agree how long it stays
Negotiate with the class. A few weeks is common. Having an end date stops it fading into wallpaper.
Take it down with care
Photograph it first, then offer the pieces to the family or put them in a memory book.

Worry box

Make a box
A shoebox with a slot, perhaps decorated as a friendly worry monster for younger classes.
Explain the promise
Pupils can post worries, named or not. You'll read them and help where you can. Be honest: if something suggests someone isn't safe, you'll have to pass it on.
Read it daily
Follow up quietly with any named pupils. Share general themes with the class if helpful ('Lots of you are worried about…').

Feelings check-in

Pick a weather
At the start of the day, pupils point to or move a peg to the weather that matches their feelings: sunny, cloudy, rainy, stormy, foggy.
No explanations needed
Nobody has to say why. Simply noticing feelings is the skill.
Follow up quietly
Check in privately with anyone who chooses stormy weather often.
For older pupils
A private number from 1 to 10 written on a sticky note, or a colour on a planner, works better than anything public.

Button box (KS1 and KS2)

Tip out a box of buttons
All shapes, sizes and colours.
Choose a button for each person
Pupils pick buttons to stand for people in their life, including people who have died, and arrange them on paper.
Talk about the choices
Why that button? Why there? It opens conversations about who matters without forcing anyone to talk about death.

How heavy is it?

Show the scale
Hands close together means a light feeling; hands wide apart means very heavy. Younger pupils can draw a small or big backpack.
Check in with it
'Show me how heavy today feels.' It's quick, wordless and private if done one to one.
Use it to plan
A heavy day might mean the time-out card, less writing, or a job helping in the library.

A class kindness project

Write cards for the bereaved family, if they'd welcome it. Check every card before it goes.
Plant bulbs or a tree in the school grounds that will come back every year.
Raise money for a charity chosen with the family.
Make a 'kindness chain' of things classmates have done for each other, to show grief can bring a class closer.

Prevention projects as positive action

After a death on the road or in water, a road safety or water safety project can turn helplessness into something useful.
Only do this with the family's agreement, and never in a way that suggests the person who died was careless.
After a death by suicide, don't run a project about the death. Focus on general wellbeing and help-seeking, planned with your DSL.
Let pupils lead: posters, assemblies, a letter to the council, a talk for younger year groups.

Early Years and KS1

Drawing and painting: 'Draw a happy time with…'
Stories about life cycles, change and death, read and then talked about
Small-world and role play: children often play out funerals and hospitals. That's healthy
A memory box made from a shoebox, filled at home with the family

KS2

Letters to the person who died, kept or posted in a special box
Memory books: one page for each memory
Simple poems and acrostics using the person's name
Feelings vocabulary work: finding words for mixed and confusing feelings

KS3, KS4 and sixth form

Journaling, kept private unless the pupil chooses to share
Poetry, song lyrics or spoken word
Art: a mask showing the face you show and the feelings inside
Student-led remembrance: a page in the yearbook, a bench, a playlist, a charity run

Next in the packLesson plans on loss and change