TEACHERS have been urged to unlock discussion about death to help children learn to better cope with bereavement.

Sobell House Hospice in Oxford has invited Oxfordshire primary schools to tackle the 'damaging' taboo surrounding death and dying, to ensure grieving youngsters are not left feeling alone if the unimaginable happens.

The pioneering project has been launched by the Headington hospice ahead of Dying Matters Week, a national campaign to encourage public conversation about death.

Schools have been sent details including lesson plans designed especially for children aged between six and 10.

Teacher Katie Hannaford, who helped design the plans, said: "I've had bereaved children in my classroom and it is very difficult to know how best to support them.

"It breaks my heart to think of a child going through a bereavement and not knowing how to talk about it."

Mrs Hannaford is a Year 4 teacher at St John's School in Wallingford, and has a personal connection to Sobell.

The mother-of-two said she experienced grief in August 2002 when her 49-year-old father died at Sobell House, when she was aged just 22.

She added: "The feelings often take you by surprise.

"It's important for children and parents to understand it is normal to feel angry or guilty or selfish about it.

"If they don’t talk about it then all these feelings become internalised, which is incredibly damaging.

"Being open and having gentle, sensitive discussions about death and dying with children can really help.”

Lessons are designed to suit children in Years 2 through Year 5, to be taught for two weeks after Easter, culminating during Dying Matters Week from May 14.

Gary Rycroft, chair of the Dying Matters forum, said: "Each year 20,000 young people in full-time education will lose a parent or sibling.

"Thousands more will lose grandparents, other family members, friends and pets.

"At an incredibly difficult time parents, carers and relatives can find themselves shying away from difficult conversations.

"Not only are they experiencing their own grief, but they don’t know how to talk about it with children.

“This initiative is helping overcome that problem and offering a solution to the challenge we all face when experiencing death of a loved one."

For more than 40 years Sobell House, based at the Churchill Hospital site, has specialised in end-of-life and palliative care and helped patients' families through grief.

Tim Harrison, clinical lead for Sobell House and a consultant in palliative medicine, said: "The issue of not knowing what to say to children when they lose someone often leads to adults saying nothing at all.

"This can result in a child feeling more isolated and alone. We hope this project equips teachers, carers and parents with the right resource to help them be more open with children."

For more details about the scheme, visit sobellhouse.org/dyingmatters.