School Visits

We had our first school visit at Chiltern last week - 29 ten and eleven year olds from a local school arrived with their wellies and packed lunches as part of our intitiative developed with the Child Bereavement Charity.
The two hour trip included some acting and music and talking about the circle of life and the feelings that we have when someone or something that we love dies, followed by a nature trail through the woodland and learning more about the work being carried out here. As a final activity the children walked the labyrinth.

Verdict on the visiting a woodland cemetery as part of a schoold day?.

Here are some of the children's thoughts:

Before the visit - "I felt sad because I thought it was going to be rubbish. I did not fancy going to a place where people get buried. I didn't think you could be buried in a wood."

After the visit -  "It was really cool during the day because they dealt with something adults don't like to talk about and I'd never been talked to about death before."

Before - " I felt really worried and slightly ill. But I still went".

After - "Now I feel glad that I went because it was a really good trip".

Before - "I thought it was going to be quite boring because it's about new life and where people are buried. I thought it was going to be quite a sad place".

After - "I really want to be buried there because it is nice to be by nature. I really enjoyed it because they were really fun activities".

Before - "I thought we were going to just walk around graves, but it was a thousand times better".

After - "Right now I want to go there again, and I think people in other schools will like it as well as Year 6".