‘We have 40 pupils bereaved’: Schools facing tsunami of childhood grief in wake of coronavirus

Dozens of students at Middlesbrough academy have lost loved ones, as teachers, unions and charities warn impact of Covid-19 deaths could leave youngsters suffering long-term trauma and mental health issues, finds Colin Drury

Some 41,000 children lose parents every year on average (Getty)

Just before lockdown was ordered at the end of March, Tom Urwin, headteacher at Outwood Academy Ormesby in Middlesbrough, set up a school bereavement register.

The idea was to have a document which kept track of any pupils who lost loved ones to Covid-19.

“My hope was we’d never have to use it,” he tells The Independent. “In a worst-case scenario, I thought there might be a dozen names on it.”