We began the week with the sad and tragic news of the death of one of our KCIS parents. Her death shook the community and we have been humbled by the support and kindness shown by the KCIS family during this difficult time. During the week we have run sessions with the students who are in class with her children, looking at what death is, what it means to each of us, and also discussing bereavement and the different emotions that are common after death.
Both classes had healthy, honest and at times very emotional discussions on the subject of death and loss. Children talked about their own experiences of family death and also the feeling of loss stirred by this emotional topic such as from sick or absent family members and parent/family separation/divorce. Students also talked about what each of them could do to support their friends on their return to school and made some beautiful cards and pictures which we gave to the children when we visited them and their father this week.
Death and loss is a difficult subject for everyone but the students should be proud of the maturity and empathy they showed throughout their discussions. If you would like to continue the discussion with your children at home, there are some great books that have been made into films on YouTube that can be used as a discussion prompt. At school, we used ‘Lifetimes‘ by Brian Melloni to explain death and ‘Missing Mummy‘ by Rebecca Cobb as a prompt for discussing bereavement. As with all videos on YouTube, please first watch by yourself any video you choose to share with your children, before watching with them.