Education Bill

Memorandum submitted by Abbey Hill Primary and Nursery (E 102)

1. Abbey Hill is a primary and Nursery in Kirkby-in-Ashfield in Nottinghamshire. We decided to teach Emergency Life Support (ELS) Skills in our school because we felt it would be an excellent life skill for our children.

2. ELS skills are the set of actions needed to keep someone alive until professional help arrives. They include performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), dealing with choking, serious bleeding and helping someone that may be having a heart attack.

3. Carole Deakin teaches ELS as part of the British Heart Foundation Heartstart training scheme.

4. Abbey Hill currently teaches ELS to approximately 140 children aged 5-11 years per year.

5. They are taught ELS on a yearly basis, each year covering a different topic.

ELS fits well into the PSHE curriculum and is also a big part of the Healthy Schools initiative.

6. Abbey Hill believes that ELS should be made a compulsory part of the National Curriculum in England because it is a skill they can carry with them for life. A lot of our children are brought up in an extremely deprived area and are not always adequately supervised. ELS gives them the confidence to deal with an emergency, should one arise, and no adult was around. We would like to encourage the Committee to amend the Education Bill to make this possible.

7. The silence in the room when the children are watching the DVD from the resource pack is remarkable! They watch it avidly and are always keen to take part in the sessions. They are also very impressed when we get the dolls out to practise resuscitation and can’t believe they get to have a go on a ‘real live’ doll!

8. The confidence that ELS gives our children when it comes to dealing with an emergency is brilliant. Our year 6 children attend a safety event on a yearly basis with children from other schools and one of the events they take part in is resuscitation – they are very keen to show off their skills and never fail to impress the instructor there.

9. I really enjoy delivering the Heartstart programme to our children. It keeps my skills fresh and makes me a confidant 1st aider. The children so obviously enjoy this activity and they seem to remember what they have learned year on year. It also covers a lot of areas for the health and well-being of our children which is good evidence for Ofsted.

March 2011