Be The Rainbow: A Practical Guide for Supporting Bereaved Children in Primary School
Synopsis "Be The Rainbow: A Practical Guide for Supporting Bereaved Children in Primary School"
A simple, yet powerful guide that can transform the way bereaved children are supported in primary schools. 'Be The Rainbow: A Practical Guide for Supporting Bereaved Children in Primary Schools' is written from direct, personal experience, with extensive input from educational and clinical psychologists, as well as teachers. It contains insight into how primary school children grieve, specially designed assessment & planning tools, as well as activities and suggestions for supporting bereaved children in their grief. It is suitable for professionals working with any primary school child who has experienced the death of someone important, whether that be a parent, sibling, grandparent or friend. "My children were 5 and 7 years old when their mum, my wife, died of cancer. It was a bewildering, turbulent time. But through the grief and the tears, we were blessed with wonderful support, in particular from the children's school. That support played a huge part in us coming through the weeks and months that followed in as good a shape as we could have hoped for. A year or so later, my daughter painted a picture. There were clouds and rain, lots of rain, but also a rainbow. She said the clouds and the rain were like the storm she sometimes felt inside. I asked her what the rainbow was and she said it was all the things that made her feel better. Then I asked her what helped her feel better, and one of the things she said was school. I had heard from other parents in my position that although many schools offered good support, there were also many that provided little to no support. Practice varied widely, so I decided to try and do something to help. Working with my children's school and taking advice from educational and clinical psychologists, I have put together this practical guide for those working with bereaved children in primary schools, so that they too can 'Be The Rainbow'" - Justin Bowen "I am so pleased you have written this guide and can see how helpful it will be" - Kim Golding CBE, Clinical Psychologist "A fabulous, practical guide which schools can just pick off the shelf and run with" - Dr Louise Field, Educational Psychologist "Extremely well written, and so needed" - Claire Howitt, Head Teacher
