September 2026: The Grief Education Requirement Most Teachers Don't Know About Yet

From next academic year, every school in England must teach children about death, grief, and bereavement. But a new survey suggests most teachers feel unprepared. Here's what you need to know.

When a Year 6 teacher in the Midlands lost her father last spring, she noticed something unexpected. Her pupils didn't ask questions. They didn't mention it at all. A few avoided eye contact. One child left a drawing on her desk—a heart with "Sorry" written inside—but ran off before she could respond.

"They wanted to help, but they had no idea what to say," she recalls. "Neither did half my colleagues, to be honest. We're all a bit uncomfortable talking about death."

By September 2026, that's going to have to change.

What's actually changing?

In July 2025, the Department for Education published revised statutory guidance for Relationships, Sex, and Health Education (RSHE). Tucked inside was a significant addition: for the first time, grief, loss, and bereavement are now explicitly included as mandatory curriculum content.

This isn't a suggestion. It's not optional enrichment. From 1st September 2026, every maintained school, academy, and free school in England must teach children about:

• That grief is a natural response and everyone experiences it differently

• How to recognise when someone is grieving

• Age-appropriate ways to support a bereaved peer

• Where to access help if they're bereaved themselves

• Different cultural perspectives on death and mourning

The guidance applies across primary and secondary, from Key Stage 1 through to Key Stage 4.

Why now?

The statistics are stark. One in 29 school-age children have been bereaved of a parent or sibling. That's at least one child in every classroom. Every twenty minutes in the UK, a parent dies leaving dependent children—26,900 parents each year.

When Ofsted asked 11-18 year olds what they most wanted to learn about in PSHE, "coping with bereavement" came top of the list.

During the DfE consultation on the updated guidance, 89% of respondents supported the inclusion of grief education. The message was clear: this matters, and schools need to step up.

Yet here's the problem. Most teachers have never been trained to teach about death.

"I wouldn't know where to start"

A PSHE coordinator at a secondary school in Birmingham says she's delivered lessons on mental health, relationships, online safety, and consent. But grief?

"I've got a lesson plan somewhere on the five stages of grief—you know, denial, anger, bargaining, all that. But it feels thin. What if a student asks something I can't answer? What if someone in the room has just lost their mum and I say the wrong thing?"

This anxiety is widespread. A recent survey of over 500 teachers found that 73% felt "underprepared" or "very underprepared" to support bereaved students, let alone teach grief as curriculum content.

The concern isn't about willingness. Teachers care deeply about their pupils' wellbeing. But talking about death requires more than good intentions. It requires specific skills, language, and an understanding of how children process loss at different developmental stages.

How grief actually shows up in schools

Here's what many teachers don't realise: grief in children rarely looks like sadness.

A five-year-old whose grandmother has died might ask, "When is Nana coming back?" twenty times a day, not because they don't understand, but because their brain is still trying to make sense of permanence.

An eight-year-old might develop sudden, unexplained stomach aches every Monday morning. Medical tests come back clear. What's actually happening? Their body is expressing what their words can't: "I'm terrified to leave my mum because what if she dies too?"

A fourteen-year-old whose father died six months ago might become the class clown—loud, disruptive, constantly in trouble. Teachers see behaviour. What they're missing is a teenager desperately trying to outrun overwhelming sadness.

A head of year in Manchester describes a Year 9 student who went from straight As to not handing in a single piece of work. "We put him on report, threatened sanctions, the lot. Then his form tutor found out his older brother had been killed in a car accident four months earlier. We'd been punishing grief."

This is the reality. Grief doesn't arrive with a label. It hides behind anger, school refusal, hyperactivity, perfectionism, defiance, and withdrawal. Without training, even experienced teachers can miss it entirely.

What children need (and what they're currently not getting)

When a child is bereaved, they need three things from the adults around them:

1. Clear, honest language

Children need adults to use the words "dead" and "died." Not "passed away," "lost," or "gone to sleep." These euphemisms create confusion, especially for younger children. A six-year-old told their body was "asleep" might develop a terror of bedtime. A child told Grandad "went on a journey" might wait by the door for years.

2. Permission to feel however they feel

There is no "right" way to grieve. Some children cry. Some don't. Some want to talk. Some go silent. Some seem fine one minute and devastated the next. All of it is normal. Children need adults who can hold space for the mess without trying to fix it.

3. Co-regulation, not consequences

When a grieving child lashes out, refuses to work, or melts down, they're not being difficult. Their nervous system is stuck in survival mode. Shouting, isolating, or putting them on report will only make things worse. What helps is a calm adult presence, a safe space, and time to settle.

None of this is intuitive. It has to be taught.

What the new requirement actually means for teachers

Let's be clear: the DfE isn't expecting teachers to become grief counsellors. You're not diagnosing complicated grief or providing therapy. What you're doing is:

• Normalising grief as a natural part of life, not something shameful or scary

• Giving children the language to understand what they're feeling

• Teaching practical skills for supporting a friend who's bereaved

• Signposting to appropriate support when needed

This could look like a Year 3 lesson exploring different ways people remember loved ones. Or a Year 8 discussion about how grief can feel in the body—tightness in the chest, exhaustion, difficulty concentrating. Or a Sixth Form session on what to say (and not say) when a friend is grieving.

It's proactive, not reactive. Instead of waiting until tragedy strikes, you're equipping children with tools before they need them.

The gap between policy and practice

Here's where it gets complicated. The statutory requirement is clear. The timeline is fixed. But the support? That's less certain.

Some schools are already ahead of the curve. They've embedded bereavement policies, trained pastoral teams, and integrated grief awareness into their PSHE planning. But they're the minority.

Most schools are only just becoming aware of the change. And many are asking the same questions:

• Who's actually going to deliver this? The PSHE coordinator? Form tutors? Outside speakers?

• What happens if a lesson triggers a child who's recently bereaved?

• How do we handle different religious and cultural beliefs sensitively?

• What if we get it wrong?

These aren't small concerns. And unfortunately, the DfE guidance doesn't provide detailed answers. It sets the requirement but leaves the "how" largely to schools.

Training exists—but most teachers don't know about it

The good news is that grief education training does exist. Organisations like Winston's Wish, Child Bereavement UK, and specialist training providers have been working in this space for years. The STILL Method, for instance, offers accredited Child Grief Coach Training specifically designed for educators, with a complete ready-to-deliver six-week programme that maps directly to the new RSHE requirements.

The challenge? Capacity. With every school in the country now required to deliver grief education, demand for training is about to skyrocket. Waiting lists are already growing.

There's also the question of what kind of training is most useful. A one-hour twilight session on "understanding grief" might tick a box, but it won't give teachers the depth, confidence, or practical tools they actually need.

What seems to work best is longer-form, skills-based training that includes:

• Developmental psychology (how children understand death at different ages)

• Practical language (actual scripts for difficult conversations)

• Trauma-informed approaches (understanding the nervous system in grief)

• Real-world scenarios (what to do when a child discloses a recent death mid-lesson)

• Safeguarding and referral pathways (when to escalate to mental health services)

Some training programmes also provide ready-to-deliver lesson plans and resources, which significantly reduces teacher workload.

What schools should be doing now

September 2026 might feel far away, but in school planning terms, it's not. Here's what forward-thinking schools are already doing:

Audit current provision. What grief support or education do you already offer? What gaps exist?

Identify training needs. Who needs to be trained? Just PSHE leads, or all pastoral staff? What about form tutors?

Book training early. Don't wait until summer 2026. Training providers are already seeing increased demand. See what RSHE 2026-compliant training looks like and check availability now.

Update policies. Does your school have a bereavement policy? Does it align with the new curriculum requirements?

Engage parents. Some parents will welcome grief education. Others might have concerns, particularly around religious or cultural beliefs. Communication is key.

The bigger picture

Ultimately, this isn't just about meeting a statutory requirement. It's about changing the way we talk about death in this country.

For too long, death has been treated as a taboo subject—something we avoid, euphemise, or relegate to the private sphere. Children pick up on that discomfort. They learn that grief is something to hide, to "get over," to manage alone.

The result? Adults who don't know how to support bereaved colleagues. Workplaces with no bereavement policies. A culture where people expect others to return to "normal" within days of losing someone they love.

Teaching children about grief—openly, honestly, age-appropriately—has the potential to shift that. It normalises loss as part of life. It builds empathy and emotional literacy. It gives young people tools they'll carry into adulthood.

The Year 6 teacher who lost her father has since had conversations with her class about grief that she never would have initiated before.

"One girl told me her hamster died and she was really sad, but her mum said 'it's just a hamster,'" she says. "We talked about how all losses matter, even the ones adults don't always understand. She looked so relieved. Like someone finally got it."

That's what good grief education does. It makes space for feelings that are often dismissed. It says, this is hard, and you're not alone, and we're going to learn how to support each other.

By September 2026, every school in England will be required to offer that. The question is: will teachers feel ready?

Next Steps

For Schools:

• See how training meets RSHE 2026 requirements - complete curriculum mapping and implementation support

• Explore accredited Child Grief Coach Training - designed specifically for educators

• Review the DfE RSHE Statutory Guidance