'Never the Same' - Resources for school leaders

This resource forms part of a wider suite of ‘Faith at Home’ resources, including parallel approaches for Church Leaders and Households. It is designed to help School Leaders approach the bereavements we will face using the Church of England’s Vision for Education as a framework. This allows us to refer to thinking with which we have been leading in other aspects of school life, bringing a new dimension to the threads we recognise.  In each section, we have provided some reflection based on the area of the vision – drawing out the impact that the Christian narrative can have in shaping our thinking and practice -  alongside some practical activities to consider using with school communities, some questions for discussion and a simple prayer to use.Grief and bereavement does not end – there is no date when everything will go back to normal. 

We will always feel the loss and so in offering this support, we hope to equip us all with a practical resource for not just the coming months, but the coming years.  The intention is to help us to make our way through this period actively acknowledging and planning for the challenges we will face, seeking to find the hopeful and the enriching wherever we can. In recognising the scale of the current situation and the fact that the ripples of mourning will be felt over years to come, we hope that this resource will help us all to navigate it the best we can – walking in humility together.

Our Vision for Education is centred on the John 10.10 promise of ‘life in all it fullness’ – however, this is not a promise that everything will go our way, or that the path ahead is easy. Life in this season will require deep wisdom, patient hope, generous community and humble dignity as we seek to enable the flourishing of the children and adults in our care.

Our title has many meanings – (when you’ve experienced loss, it will be – never the same – without X…; the way that each individual and community experiences grief is unique and thus never the same etc.). There is change, instability, question and doubt yet the Christian narrative says “Jesus Christ is the same – yesterday, today and forever” (Hebrews 13.8). It is by this light that we journey on and grow around our bereavement together.

We are extremely grateful to the wide range of Diocesan Directors of Education who have worked collaboratively together to create this resource, and offer it accompanied by a wide range of recommended further resources from a fantastic range of partner organisations working in this space.