Designing a Whole-School Approach to RE and Wellbeing After a Bereavement

The RE department's role is educational and formational within the curriculum: helping students explore questions of suffering, death, and hope within religious and non-religious traditions, and giving them language and frameworks for their questions. Guidance counsellors provide therapeutic and pastoral support for students in distress. Chaplaincy provides spiritual accompaniment and ritual leadership. These roles overlap but are not interchangeable, and confusing them risks both educational harm and inadequate pastoral care.

I would communicate the boundaries in three ways. First, a short written protocol agreed with the principal, guidance, and chaplaincy, stating that RE lessons will address the questions educationally, that any student disclosing significant distress will be referred to guidance through the agreed route, and that chaplaincy will lead any act of remembrance. Second, a staff briefing making clear that teachers are not expected to counsel students and should not promise confidentiality, and giving them a simple script for referring a student who is struggling. Third, a student-facing message, delivered in class, explaining that RE lessons are a space to think about big questions together, that support is available, and how to access it. The protocol should also identify a named contact in guidance for each year group and a simple referral slip. This protects students, protects staff from feeling out of their depth, and ensures the RE lessons remain a place of learning rather than becoming an improvised counselling service.

Week one would focus on creating a safe space and giving students a framework. Lesson one would establish ground rules for discussing loss and grief, including the right to pass, and would use a structured 'questions we are carrying' activity where students write questions anonymously. The teacher would group the questions into themes such as 'why does suffering happen?', 'what happens after death?', and 'where is God in this?'. Lesson two would introduce how different traditions respond to suffering, using short, accessible sources from Christian, Muslim, Jewish, and humanist perspectives, with an explicit note that these are resources for thinking, not answers that must be accepted. Week two would deepen this: lesson three would explore hope and resurrection in Christian tradition alongside other visions of hope, and lesson four would allow students to articulate their own response in a reflective piece, with a choice of formats. A short act of remembrance would be held separately, led by chaplaincy, so that the RE lessons are not asked to carry the ritual function.

The justification is that this sequence responds to students' real questions, keeps the lessons educational, and respects the multi-faith and non-religious composition of the class. It avoids presenting one tradition's answer as the school's answer, and it gives students agency through anonymous questions and choice of response format. It also sequences from safety and questions to content and then to personal reflection, which is appropriate in the acute phase of a bereavement.

Staff support would begin with a briefing before the lessons start, covering the protocol, the lesson materials, and the referral route. I would also provide a short 'what to say if...' guide with sample responses to common student questions and to disclosures, and I would make clear that teachers may adapt the materials to their own classes. Given that the guidance team is at capacity, I would not add to their load with requests for training; instead I would ask chaplaincy to co-facilitate the staff briefing and to be available for a drop-in after the first week. I would check in briefly with each RE teacher after lessons one and three, using a two-minute conversation or a short form, to see how the lessons landed and whether any student needs referral.

Monitoring would use light-touch evidence: a short anonymous student feedback slip at the end of week one, teacher observations recorded on a shared document, and a count of referrals to guidance with no identifying details. I would review this at the end of week one with the principal, guidance, and chaplaincy, and adjust the week-two plan accordingly. At the end of week two I would write a brief summary for the principal covering what was taught, what students said, how many referrals were made, and recommendations for the longer term, including whether the RE scheme of work should include a planned unit on loss and hope. The aim is to be responsive without overburdening staff or turning the monitoring into surveillance.