Lesson learned from today: Life is short, we may not realise how short it can be - go and live it!
Today, as a school community, we had a very difficult task to perform. We had to inform the children about the death of a child in the school. Personally it is not something I had ever hoped to have to do and something I hope I never have to do again. On a teaching placement I did have to tell a class, with the class teacher, that a substitute teacher, who had worked in the school a lot in the previous few weeks and was even in school the previous day, had died suddenly. I thought that was difficult but to be providing support to an experienced teacher who today, told my class that a child, 2 years older than them, had passed away was awful. In all classes the children were told by 2 adults. For my class, it was felt that using the terms 'passed away' and 'gone to be with God' would be more appropriate than telling them straight out that the child had died. We did eventually have to use that way but I son't think the children still fully grasped that the child would never come back to school, could never get well and would never be with her family and friends again on earth. Afterwards we had our first class liturgy and as the priest gave his sermon, and spoke briefly about death and passing away, I could see tears in the eyes of some of my children as they realised what it was we had tried to tell them so gently shortly before.
Lesson learned from today: Life is short, we may not realise how short it can be - go and live it!
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorThe blog of a newly qualified teacher from the West of Ireland, working in a London School. Archives
February 2016
Categories
All
|