Funeral director Jo talks about death to students
A BURTON funeral director has been lifting the taboos surrounding death during a frank talk to school children.
Jo Mills, area manager for Central England Co-operative Funeral Services, was at William Shrewsbury Primary School, in Church Road, Stretton, for three days and led a number of sessions on the concept of death.
The former funeral director at Burton-based Wellings, in Derby Street, answered questions from 90 youngsters – covering topics such as planning funerals, to what day-today life is like as a funeral director.
She said: “I am so proud that we have been able to spend valuable time with children to talk about the difficult subject of death.
“I spent the time explaining to them about my job, what goes into planning a funeral and how different faiths have different ways of saying goodbye to their loved ones.”
Reverend George Crossley, from St Chad’s Church, in Burton and St Mary’s Church, in Stretton, was also on hand to speak about grief and the importance of remembrance to the pupils – aged nine and 10.
The sessions were well received, with head of Year 5 Mike Randles, saying youngsters had told staff they were starting to understand the tricky subject.
Mr Randles said: “We feel that talking to youngsters about death is an important part of helping them on their journey towards adulthood. The three days saw 90 youngsters aged nine to 10 find out about a variety of topics from Jo – and also ask her lots of questions.
“This is the second year we have worked with Rev Crossley, Jo and Wellings – and the feedback on both occasions is that the youngsters enjoyed and, most importantly, started to understand more about what is a difficult and delicate subject.”