School apologises after children are told to plan own funeral as homework

St Paul’s Catholic School in Leicester (Picture: Google Maps)
St Paul’s Catholic School in Leicester (Picture: Google Maps)

A school has been forced to apologise after it told pupils to plan their own funeral as homework during the lockdown.

Parents reacted angrily after they found out St Paul’s Catholic School in Leicester had assigned year eight pupils the morbid task.

They were told to choose a style of coffin, type of flowers, favourite hymn and even their guest list, the Sun reported.

The youngsters were also asked if they’d prefer a traditional burial or a cremation.

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Funeral. Coffin carriers.
Year Eight pupils were told to plan their own funerals (Picture: Getty)

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Mum Gemma Marston uploaded a copy of the homework online, adding: “Anyone else feel that getting them to plan their own funeral is a bit too much? Or am I being over the top?”

Other parents agreed, with one saying it was “way over the top” and another adding the assignment would cause a lot of fear.

They also questioned if it was the best time to issue the homework considering we were in a pandemic.

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A teacher who saw the assignment wrote: “I wouldn’t do this. Some children can be very susceptible to ideas about death and funerals.

“You don’t always know if one of your pupils has had a recent loss and this sort of thing can be very triggering for pupils.”

St Paul’s Catholic School has now apologised and said the assignment was given “in error”.

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