Guide Me impact

Devora O'Neill
Jul 17
4 min read

End of Term Report: How Bereaved Young People Are Creating More Compassionate Schools

As another school year comes to an end, classrooms empty, reports are handed out and students (and teachers!) head off for a well-earned summer break.

For many young people, it's a time to celebrate achievements and look forward to the future.

For the young people who took part in Guide Me this year, it's also a moment to look back on just how far they've come.

This was a year of finding the confidence to talk about grief, discovering they weren't alone, building compassion for what they have been through, and helping to create schools where other young people feel safer talking about loss too.

Every bereaved young person deserves to feel understood

Grief can be one of the loneliest experiences a young person faces.

Many return to school after the death of someone important carrying emotions they struggle to explain. Many withhold their feelings from family members in fear of creating more stress or sadness where there is already so much sadness. Friends often don't know what to say. Teachers want to help but may not always have the time, confidence or resources to provide the support they need.

Guide Me was created to change that.

Over 12 weeks, bereaved young people come together in a safe, creative and supportive space where they explore grief through conversation, creativity and shared experience. Together they learn practical ways to care for themselves, support one another and discover that grief doesn't have to be something they carry alone.

One young person summed it up perfectly:

"You are allowed to feel and be exactly as you are because that is your experience and no one else's."

Another shared:

"My heart aches every day and I try my best to keep putting on this front to the world but I'm not scared or afraid anymore to say I'm heartbroken. I can hurt and be scared and that's okay."

Those words remind us why programmes like Guide Me matter. Young people deserve somewhere they can be honest about their grief without fear of judgement.

From healing to helping others

What makes Guide Me unique is what happens next. The programme doesn't end when the 12-week programme ends, young people take what they've learned and use it to help others.

Across the programme, our Guides design and deliver projects that encourage conversations about grief across their school communities. Some organised compassion stalls where nearly 200 compassion letters were written and delivered. Others led assemblies for younger pupils. Two schools organised a commemorative football match, designing shirts bearing the initials and important dates of loved ones they had lost.

Another school created a Formula One simulator event where students raced a lap in memory of someone important to them. The event was opened by one Guide speaking publicly about his mother's death for the very first time.

By the end of the year, their projects had reached more than 1,000 other young people, opening up conversations about grief, loneliness and belonging that might never otherwise have happened.

This is what compassionate schools look like.

Not schools where grief disappears, but schools where no young person feels they have to face it alone.

The numbers tell an important story

This year, Guide Me directly supported 52 bereaved young people across six schools, providing each participant with 24 hours of creative, therapeutic support.

Together they achieved:

62% increase in self-compassion.
58% increase in feeling connected and less alone.
50% increase in the quality of relationships.
48% increase in their ability and willingness to help others through loss.
44% increase in confidence to share their experiences of grief.

Perhaps most encouraging of all, nine out of ten participants said they would recommend Guide Me to another grieving young person.

Those figures tell us that when young people are given the right support, they don't just cope with grief more confidently. They also become a source of strength for those around them.

What this year taught us

This year also reminded us that the need for grief support has never been greater.

Schools continue to face enormous financial and social pressures, while many of the young people we meet are navigating bereavement alongside other significant challenges including parental imprisonment, domestic violence, poor mental health and school attendance challenges.

Yet, even in the most challenging circumstances, young people continually showed empathy, courage and wisdom.

One Guide shared this powerful reminder:

"You would not tell a grieving friend they are 'dramatic' or 'weak,' so don't do it to yourself."

When young people are given the language, the tools and the opportunity to support one another, they help create kinder school communities where conversations about grief become possible.

Looking ahead

The end of term is also the beginning of a new chapter. we aren't just celebrating what our Guides achieved. We're celebrating what they made possible.

Hundreds of young people now attend schools where grief is talked about more openly, compassion is modelled by their peers, and asking for help feels just a little bit easier.

That's a legacy worth building on.

Next year, we want to bring Guide Me to more schools, reach more bereaved young people and continue developing resources that help schools build lasting cultures of compassion.

None of this would be possible without the support of the National Lottery Community Fund, NCEL and CAMHS Provider Collaborative 2025/26 Grant Scheme and St James Place Foundation, our school partners, NEXUS, our incredible facilitators and, above all, the young people who trusted us with their stories.