Death Education in the Primary School [1]

Death Education, a common component of Religious Education (RE) and Personal and Social Education (PSE) at secondary level, is an issue beginning to raise its head within the field of primary education. Is there justification for death, a topic normally a taboo, to be taught about in the primary school? Is death education beneficial for children and are children aged 9‐11years capable of discussing such an abstract concept as the afterlife?

This article attempts to justify the teaching of death education at primary level. It examines research that proposes death education is of relevance to children and suggests, from examining children's conception of the afterlife, that children at the upper end of the primary school are capable of discussing the afterlife and thus of thinking abstractly.