Schools

When death comes to your school,
will your staff be ready?

Practical professional development for school staff on death literacy and grief - delivered by a qualified psychotherapist with a deliberately frank, witty, and practical approach. Perth-based. Available nationally.

★ The Death-Literate School programme Individual sessions Why this matters Get in touch

Flagship programme

The Death-Literate School
programme

A whole-community programme that transforms your school's relationship with death, grief, and loss. Not a one-off session - a genuine commitment to becoming something different. Something your school can advertise.

Staff

Building the foundation

One or more sessions building death literacy and practical confidence across your whole team - teachers and support staff alike. Staff who respond rather than freeze when death touches your community.

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Parents

Bringing the community with you

One or more sessions explaining what death literacy is, why it matters, and what's coming for their children. Parents who understand the programme won't be alarmed by it - they'll be relieved.

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Students

The real work

Multiple age-appropriate death literacy sessions delivered directly to students by Sam - with staff equipped to reinforce the message and parents already on board. The community is ready. Now the students get what they need.

A death-literate school community.

Something you can put on your website, your prospectus, and your enrolment materials. A genuine point of difference in a competitive school market - and proof your school takes whole-person wellbeing seriously.

A programme, not a session.

The Death-Literate School programme typically takes over a year to implement fully. It requires genuine commitment from school leadership - and delivers genuine transformation in return. Sam works with your leadership team from the start to plan, sequence, and deliver each stage.

Individual sessions

Not ready for the full programme? Start here.

All sessions delivered by Sam. In-person strongly recommended - online available where in-person is not feasible. Tailored to your school's context, sector, and community.

Keynote - All Staff

When Death Comes to Your School

A keynote for all staff - teachers and support staff alike - grounded in current research. Frank, witty, and practical. Staff leave having laughed, having been challenged, and holding tools they can use the next day.

60–90 minutes · Whole staff · In-person strongly recommended

Keynote - Students

An Introduction to Death Literacy

An age-appropriate keynote delivered directly to students. Practical, honest, and designed to open the conversation rather than close it down. Sam adjusts her approach to the year group in front of her.

60 minutes · Secondary students · In-person strongly recommended

Workshop

Supporting Grieving Students

A deeper dive for pastoral care staff, year coordinators, and school counsellors. What to say, what not to say, and when to refer.

Half day · Pastoral care teams · In-person strongly recommended

Tailored

Built for Your School

A specific need - a community that's experienced a loss, a particular year group, or a leadership team wanting a whole-school approach? Sam will design something that fits.

Flexible format · Contact us to discuss

Why this matters

Silence is never as protective as it seems.

When a student asks a hard question about death. When a colleague loses someone. When something serious happens in your school. Staff are expected to respond with confidence and care - and most have never been given the tools to do so.

The research is clear. Adolescence is a developmentally sensitive window - the period when existential thinking emerges and when normalising conversations about mortality can meaningfully reduce death anxiety. Schools that provide that foundation give students something they will carry for life.

Schools that don't leave young people to make sense of death on their own. And when something goes wrong, the difference between a prepared school and an unprepared one is visible to everyone.

"Death literacy isn't a difficult conversation. It's a necessary one. And your school community deserves to be ready for it."

Sam's approach is grounded in established research frameworks - the Death Literacy Index (Western Sydney University), Compassionate Communities (Kellehear), Terror Management Theory, and Grief Literacy research from Curtin University.

This is evidence-informed professional development delivered by a qualified psychotherapist. And - against all reasonable expectation - it is often quite funny.

The risk of doing nothing

How your school responds to a death in its community will be scrutinised.

By parents. By media. By governing bodies. A poorly managed response is a public relations disaster as well as a pastoral one. Uncoordinated, emotionally unprepared responses to in-school death events have become some of the most damaging reputational crises school leaders face.

Confident, death-literate staff is a choice made well before the moment arrives.

Sam Waite teaching at a school PD session

The Principal Standard

"Create an ethos of respect taking account of the spiritual, moral, social and physical health and wellbeing of students."

- Australian Professional Standard for Principals, AITSL

"Understand the implications of child safety, health and wellbeing in relation to serving their community and broader society."

- Australian Professional Standard for Principals, AITSL

Death literacy sits squarely within these responsibilities. Sam can provide session documentation aligned to the AITSL framework to support your professional learning records.

What people say

★★★★★

"I came away feeling much more confident to speak on this topic. I also see the importance of bringing this topic into schools. To do so without fear, sort of like sex education from the past hasn't created the fear once expected."

Educator · School Workshop