Every year Oakwood Park Grammar School supports a local and global charity, actively raising money for the benefit of the wider community. This year, our local charity is called Slide Away. Slide Away is a Kent based charity which works to ‘Help bereaved young people get back on their feet’. It provides workshops for children in Kent in order to give them access to a bereavement support service. Their vision is to help bereaved young people acknowledge and deal with grief, after experiencing the loss of a close friend or relative. Slide Away is the first charity of this sort to work directly through and with schools in the county.

Slide Away is focused on creating support and understanding for those who have experienced the death of a loved one. This is gained by training members of school staff as School Bereavement Contacts. Equally, Slide Away allow parents/ carers to become involved in one day programmes aimed at helping them to be aware and understand their child’s grief dependening on age and personal development. Slide Away also offer workshops which run across two days. These give young people the chance to express their emotions in a safe place. This is achieved by taking part in activities such as making a memory box and releasing balloons with special messages.