‘Children need to talk about death and dying,’ she said. ‘You can talk about the most interesting details of sex but only the smallest amount about how people die.’ 

 

This piece on Radio 4's Today programme continued the debate. Shelley Gilbert, founder of bereavement charity Grief Encounter, says we need to open up the conversation, and that teachers should be trained to tackle kid’s questions head on. 

 

Children’s writer Judith Kerr, on the other hand, says the classroom is not the place for talk of mortality. She recalled her mother’s advice about what happened after death: ‘Nobody knows, but perhaps when you grow up you’ll be the first one to find out.’ 

 

By bringing the shadowy unknowns of death into the open, could we benefit from less fear and anxiety about the great beyond?