How does a school cope with the murder of a teacher?

The horrific murder of Ann Maguire, a much loved teacher, by one of her pupils in a Leeds Catholic school, has shocked and bewildered the country. How can such disastrous events happen in a school? How can the school and its members recover? Does the Catholic basis of the school help it cope? There are similarities with what happened some years ago outside St George’s School in Maida Vale, north London, when its headmaster, Philip Lawrence, was murdered. The two dreadful deaths have different contexts but a sense of shock and deep sadness in each is common. This week the teenage boy who killed Mrs Maguire was sentenced to life in jail. The conclusion of the due legal processes provides the grieving community with a sense of closure, but this is only the beginning of a long and co