Manchester: First Aid training for all Saint Paul's pupils

Pupils learn life-saving technique

For the first time ever, every pupil at Saint Paul's Catholic High School in Wythenshawe, Manchester, has undergone first aid training, an important and extremely valuable life skill.

The school believes that the pupils need a good understanding of First Aid in case of an emergency. When someone is having a heart attack, has serious bleeding, choking, is unconscious or in cardiac arrest, knowing what to do to help keep them alive until professional help arrives can give their chances of survival a significant boost.

The initial training was provided by the Red Cross who came into school to train eight members of staff, the staff then delivered this training to each year group during their PHSE (Personal, Social, Health and Economic) lessons. The training included managing an incident safely, calling 999, putting an unconscious breathing casualty in the recovery position performing CPR on a non-breathing casualty how to treat a heavy bleed.

"These are extremely valuable and important skills, equipping our pupils with the knowledge which could be the difference between life and death," explained Mrs Ursula Gallagher from Saint Paul's. "Also, we believe that learning first aid helps pupils to build self-confidence, social interaction and self-esteem in addition to team work and communication skills."

"The Red Cross training was pitched just right for our pupils, so that they learnt the theory in a fun and interactive way and had lots of practical hands-on training," added Mrs Angie Holland from Saint Paul's. "The pupils were asked to rate their knowledge of First Aid at the beginning of the training, most put 1 or 2 (no knowledge whatsoever), after the training they rated again and most put 8 to 10 (confident to perform CPR and put a casualty in the recovery position)."

Comments from the pupils included:

"I put a score of 9 at the end because I would be able to do the pushover and CPR and I couldn't do them before."

"I am confident that I would know what to do in one of these emergency situations."

Miss Tina Wilkinson, Deputy Headteacher, said: "Every year, too many people die in situations where first aid could have given them a chance to live. We are aiming to equip our entire school with the confidence and ability to save a life."