It is vital to acknowledge a loss through suicide, bereavement or separation in the life of a student, teachers were told at an ASTI in-service course recently.
Suicide and bereavement were examined as issues concerning teachers at the ASTI in-service in Dublin. A further in-service course entitled, A school response to suicide, sudden death and suicidal behaviour, will be held in Carrick-on-Shannon Education Centre, Co Leitrim, over two weekends, starting this Friday at 6.30 p.m.
Teachers are "extremely concerned about students who are experiencing the trauma of separation and bereavement, arising from death, suicide, family separation and divorce," the 42 teachers who attended the ASTI course were told by Moira Leydon, assistant general secretary of the union.
"Responding to the needs of these students can be extremely challenging," she told those who gathered in Dublin for The School's Response to the Bereaved Child in-service day.
For the children and adolescents who are going through this trauma, Ros O'Donnell, of Barnardo's Child Bereavement Service, said "it is crucial that teachers acknowledge the loss".
