Grief education to be part of school curriculum
20th July 2025
Grief education is now being introduced into the school curriculum in England — a landmark step that we at AtaLoss fully support.
Grief affects every one of us. Yet for too long, conversations about loss have been avoided in schools due to fear, discomfort, or lack of guidance. That’s now beginning to change.
As part of the revised Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) curriculum, children - one of whom in each classroom on average has been bereaved - will begin learning about bereavement in an age-appropriate way—helping to normalise grief, support their emotional wellbeing, and build compassion from a young age.
As Secretariat to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Grief Support and the Impact of Death on Society (APPG), AtaLoss welcomes this much-needed change.
“This curriculum update reflects a much-needed cultural shift—away from the widespread denial of death in our society. By making grief something we can talk about openly, we are helping to equip future generations with the empathy, resilience, and understanding they need to cope with bereavement as well as support many children currently bereaved.
The impact won’t just be emotional—it will be economic too. Alongside social pressures unsupported bereavement is contributing to the rising mental ill-health issue in young people and suicide contagion - and misdiagnosis to increased demands. The cost of unrecognised and unsupported grief to the UK economy is staggering, with bereavement-related job loss and reduced productivity alone estimated at £22.6 billion annually. Supporting the many other negative outcomes such as physical ill-health, debt, homelessness, addiction, relationship breakdown and crime are costing the country multiple billions more.
As Secretariat of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Grief Support and the Impact of Death on Society, we at AtaLoss—alongside fellow members—will continue to push for teachers to receive the training, resources and signposting to information and specialist services they need to equip them to deliver this vital part of the curriculum confidently.”
— Yvonne Tulloch, CEO, AtaLoss
We are here to help. We provide:
Webinars on supporting a bereaved young person for teachers, parents and youth workers.
Signposting to expert bereavement support services and information
Tools such as the Tough Stuff journal to help children process their feelings.
Yvonne Tulloch, CEO of AtaLoss, recently discussed this important development in a broadcast on The Times Radio. You can listen to the segment here: https://we.tl/t-T5ho0GR4Yt
For media enquiries, interviews, more information about AtaLoss’ work in bereavement signposting and support, please contact:
AtaLoss Head of Public Relations, Adam May.
Email: adam.may@ataloss.org
Mobile: 07736 949869
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