Buckingham Palace has announced that Queen Elizabeth II, Britain's longest-reigning monarch has died at the age of 96.
After the news broke and amid the flurry of tributes, 'Will schools close for Queen Elizabeth’s funeral?' and 'Will schools close during the UK's ten days of mourning?' were just some of the questions parents were left asking.
In the days after her death it was reported that The Department for Education previously said it ‘will issue advice in due course to all schools should [the Queen die].’ Since then, however, a government spokesman has said, ‘Monday, September 19, the date of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II's state funeral, will be a national bank holiday. This will allow individuals, businesses and other organisations to pay their respects to Her Majesty and commemorate her reign, while marking the final day of the period of national mourning…Schools will be closed. We are not asking them to remain open on the day of the bank holiday.’
As for private nurseries, pre-schools and other early years settings like childminders, no official guidance has been issued. However, many of you have told us that your child's nursery will be closed on the day of the Queen's funeral.
The Queen's funeral has officially been declared a bank holiday that will apply in all parts of the UK. However, while most workers will be given the day off, childcare workers included, the government has said that this might not be the case for everybody and the government's official website says: 'This is a matter for discussion between individuals and their employers.' New official guidance says that employers should decide whether or not their staff are given the day off. All schools, however, will officially be closed.
Parents may also be wondering over the coming days how to talk to their children about the Queen’s death, including what it will mean for her family, including her great-grandchildren.
Last year Grazia interviewed leading psychotherapist Julia Samuel MBE, who has dedicated her career to supporting grieving families and is the Founder Patron of Child Bereavement UK. Back then she told us that when talking to children about death, ‘adults often want to protect children and so perhaps they don’t tell them the full story of what has happened, or they skip the fact that somebody has died and just say that they’ve “gone to heaven”. What children don’t know they make up, and what they make up is much more frightening than the truth, so they need to know that whoever it is – their grandma, their sibling or their dog – has died. Children need the same truth as all the adults around them.’