Get Action! Grief education in schools w/ Lee-Anne Duncan: 23 Sep, 2026

Sooner or later, all of us will be touched with grief in our lives. But talking about death and the loss of a loved one can be an experience we might find incredibly difficult to navigate - particularly, when talking to a child about loss. And yet, by 8, 35% of NZ children experience a close family member’s death. For 1% of children, that will be a parent. Back in 1999, ‘Change, Loss, and Grief’ were included within Aotearoa’s curriculum, but by 2007 references to loss, bereavement, and grief were absent. In recent times, there’s been a push to incorporate greater education around grief in Australia and in England, where grief and loss will be taught as part of their relationships, sex, and health education from this month on. Closer to home, Grief Education in Schools Aotearoa have launched a petition to bring education on grief into our school curriculum. So for this week’s Get Action, producer Theo began by asking campaigner Lee-Anne Duncan “what would grief education in schools look like?” If you’d like to sign their petition you can find it on the ActionStation website, or linked just here .