Schools and Teachers

Are you prepared for a death in your school community?

School communities struggle constantly with how to manage the death of a student, parent, teacher or other member of the school community. The death may be expected due to illness or may come out of the blue due to an accident or other trauma, such as suicide.

How the school deals with the shock and grief of these deaths will directly effect how students make meaning of the death and therefore how they process death as a part of life.

Molly Carlile - Deathtalker can help your school community to prepare for the inevitability of a significant death and assist you to put processes in place for informing, educating and supporting students and staff that demystify death and encourage compassionate conversations.

Specifically for students:

Molly has developed a number of programs for young children (primary school age) built around her highly successful children's book "Jelly Bean's Secret" that tells the story of a family dealing with death and explores common themes around dying, grief and remembering. Molly can tailor age appropriate programs that meet the specific needs of your school community and that are respectful of the philosophy, religious affiliation and spiritual alignment of your school.

For more details or to discuss program ideas, please contact Molly Carlile- Deathtalker

For secondary students:

Molly's new book "Sometimes Life Sucks", due to be launched in August 2010 deals with the specific issues faced by young people when coming to terms with significant death. Stories of traumatic death, disenfranchised grief, multiple teen deaths, suicide and loss of innocence are all told in the book that incorporates discussion and self help and support strategies for readers. The book forms the basis for a number of school programs that target older students including:

  • What happens when someone dies?
  • When someone I love dies?
  • "I've been doing weird things", the how and why of grief
  • How to help a friend who's grieving

For teachers and educators:

Molly can put together a targeted program specific to your school that addresses the needs of teachers and educators who want to inform and support their student community. Programs are available that meet the specific need of individual schools, regional groups and educator organisations. Everything from basic information on how to integrate death discussions into the general curriculum through to development of death education programs that interface with existing programs such as "Seasons" or that are able to be inserted into Life Education or Health and Wellness programs.

Programs can be conducted in a range of formats from single sessions through to in-depth one or two day conference/ in-service programs that cover the following topics:

  • Understanding death and "naming" it
  • The grieving process
  • Having sensitive conversations with grieving young people
  • Complex grief and how to identify it
  • Basic grief support: A Toolkit
  • Finding meaning in significant loss
  • The DO's and DONT'S of grief support
  • Self care and resilience for teachers coping with a significant loss in the personal life or school community

Molly is experienced and skilled in using arts based approaches to death and grief expression that include:

  • Creative writing
  • Memorial creation
  • Creation of Memory Books
  • Meditative artwork
  • Legacy exploration
  • Using performance to explore themes of death and loss

Molly Carlile- Deathtalker can develop a program for your school community that meets the unique needs of the students, teachers and wider school community. Contact Molly and discuss your needs today BEFORE a significant death occurs in your school community.