Education Bill

Memorandum submitted by Catcote School (E 54)

1. Catcote Business and Enterprise College is a Secondary special needs school and College in Hartlepool in England. We decided to teach Emergency Life Support (ELS) Skills in our school because the school delivers Sports Leaders and Duke of Edinburgh Courses and the ELS Training supports this.

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. Catcote teaches ELS as part of the British Heart Foundation Heartstart training scheme.

4. Catcote currently teaches ELS to 30 children aged between 16-19 years per year.

5. They are taught ELS for one hour per week for four weeks as part of their sports lessons or DofE lessons.

6. Catcote believes that ELS should be made a compulsory part of the National Curriculum in England because as a school we have struggled to fit this into the curriculum and have had to incorporate it into other subjects. If made compulsory appropriate time could be given to students to deliver the course to its full potential. We would like to encourage the Committee to amend the Education Bill to make this possible.

7. Students found the training sessions very useful, gained lots of new skills and information about ELS. After sessions students said that they really enjoyed the activities and would like more sessions.

8. Students have only accessed some sessions and not completed full course however students have enjoyed it so much they have asked to run to others when qualified in lunch time clubs

9. Two teachers within school hold the heart start training qualification. Teachers feel confident in delivering the course and keep skills fresh by constantly up dating knowledge using packs or the internet site.

Heart Start Training at Catcote school has been extremely beneficial to students in gaining confidence and skills, however it has been difficult to run and gain the best benefits from the course due to time tabling issues. The course has had to be run within other lessons so content of subjects such as Sports Leaders Courses has had to be changed. It would be excellent for ELS to be made compulsory so that lessons would be set aside for this qualification so it can be delivered to its best.

March 2011