ARU partners with charity to help bereaved pupils
Experts work with Scotty’s Little Soldiers to create resources for trainee teachers
Bereaved military family members from Scotty's Little Soldiers in London for Remembrance weekend
Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) has joined forces with Scotty’s Little Soldiers – the charity supporting bereaved military children and young people – to help trainee teachers recognise and respond compassionately to the needs of bereaved pupils.
ARU’s Initial Teacher Training (ITT) team has worked with Scotty’s to develop a series of new open-access education resources focusing on bereavement.
The materials, available to all teacher training providers, aim to build the confidence of teachers and increase inclusivity in classrooms by equipping the next generation of teachers with practical strategies to support pupils who are experiencing grief.
Modules focus on primary and secondary education as well as bereavement theory and include guidance for lecturers. They draw on Scotty’s own research, involving nearly 200 bereaved military families, highlighting the ways bereavement intersects with education.
Key findings of Scotty’s research include that 77% of bereaved children and young people had experienced at least one lesson containing content that directly related to or reminded them of their parent’s death, while 52% had multiple experiences of potentially distressing content.
Additionally, over one in eight students who had sat GCSE or A Level exams had been asked to answer a question directly related to, or reminding them of, their bereavement.
One young person said: “My sister had a very bad experience with her Science GCSE. Lots of questions on cancer. She cried a lot when she came home. When she finished her GCSE she went to English revision and they were revising grief and loss. My sister walked out of the classroom. Our dad passed away five months before all this.”
ARU trains student teachers in partnership with 500 schools across the East of England and offers the BEd (Hons) Primary Education with Qualified Teacher Status course in Cambridge, Chelmsford and Peterborough.
Across England and Wales, 179 accredited providers train around 25,000 new teachers each year, and the new learning resources can be accessed further afield if appropriate.
“It has been a privilege to work with Scotty’s on this project, which was designed and developed with trainee teachers and ITT tutors at ARU. We are proud to be contributing open access resources, free to providers, to promote compassionate conversations about death and bereavement in classrooms.
“Our trainees told us the module content helped them feel more confident to support bereaved children whilst on placement and talk to their school mentors about bereaved children in their class. We are looking forward to sharing learning with other providers who use the resources.”
Jenny Fogarty, Director of Initial Teacher Training (ITT) at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU)From September 2026, bereavement education will be included in the relationships and sex education (RSE) curriculum for the first time and Scotty’s also plan to release self-directed online training next year, which is aimed at current teachers and aligned with the new curriculum.
“Alongside home, bereaved children and young people spend a large portion of their life at school. For schools to respond to their needs compassionately will make a significant difference to feelings of safety and belonging, improving their wellbeing and helping them to thrive in education. Children should not be disadvantaged by their bereavement.
“We hope that the teacher training resources will help trainees to feel confident in supporting bereaved children in their learning. Teachers cannot change the curriculum, but they can deliver it in a way that is compassionate to the needs of bereaved children as part of inclusive practice.”
Rob Ilett, Head of the STRIDES education and personal development programme at Scotty’sThe Scottish Veterans Commissioner recently published a report on support for the bereaved community, which calls for educators to embed Scotty’s insights into guidance: https://www.scottishveteranscommissioner.org/report-bereaved-community/
The new training has been reviewed against the NASEN Quality Framework for Inclusion, and development for the training was helped by funding from the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust and Lloyd’s Patriotic Fund.
The resources are live at www.scottyslearning.com and ITT training providers can request free access by emailing [email protected]