Death of a pupil

[AuntPru]

Not sure what I'm wanting from this post, but I need to share.

We lost a pupil last week. It was completely unexpected and there is police involvement. I didn't teach the child but had taught siblings. It's just so, so sad. I've been teaching for seven years and fortunately this is the first time I've been in this situation. So upsetting 💔

It is very upsetting I know - I experienced this too, but no police involvement. In the end the family allowed the funeral cortege to pass the school and those children who wished to were allowed to line the street outside with accompanying staff. Close friends went to the service. Some of the children were even more upset after seeing the coffin go by and I think some had counselling arranged by the school. We staff were very upset, you don't expect a pupil to die before you. I hope the police involvement is concluded soon.

Thank you for your reply. I don't want to give more details as I don't want this to be outing. It's comforting to know people understand xxx

It’s always terribly upsetting, far more so than you might expect. Shortly after i started at my current school we lost 3 kids ( i taught all of them) in 4 years. I have never been to such harrowing and emotional funerals. Hugs

We had this happen in 2021. The child was in Year 1.

It was devastating and terrible for her family. Our library is now named after her.

Just found out that there is going to be an inquest😖

Sorry, an enquiry, not an inquest. Not sure what that means/ will involve, but my colleagues in safeguarding seem quite stressed 😥

My sympathies. A child at my children's secondary school was killed by a family member.

My daughters said that the school handled it extremely well, though obviously all the details were not known at the time. It turned out that the school had been the first to alert the police to the child's absence, because they were unable to contact the family.

My children were in different year groups and didn't know her, so other than the normal shock and sadness, they weren't particularly affected. The school arranged counselling for those who were more closely affected and there is now a memorial in the school grounds.

I imagine in this case your safeguarding colleagues will be wanting to assure themselves that there was nothing that they had missed. Not easy to do when they will still be so upset about the news.

We had a death last year. Question mark remains whether accidental or suicide. It is just so sad for everyone and that year group was deeply affected.

Support each other as best you can.