Education Bill

Memorandum submitted by St Matthew’s C of E Primary School (E 72)

St Matthew’s is a Church of England Primary School in Leeds West Yorkshire. We decided to teach Emergency Life Support (ELS) Skills In our school because we were looking for area’s of enrichment which could be delivered to children by support staff during teachers PPA time (Planning, Preparation & Assessment).

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 have had a heart attack.

St Matthew’s teaches ELS as part of British Heart Foundation Heartstart training scheme.

St Matthew’s currently teaches ELS to 60 children aged 9& 10 per year.

They are taught ELS for 36 hours per academic year as part of our Life Skills programme during PPA cover.

St Matthew’s believes that ELS should be made a compulsory part of National Curriculum in England because it is a skill that can be taken through life and used as a tool to enhance good citizenship. We would like to encourage the Committee to amend the Education Bill to make this possible.

The children approach their ELS training with enthusiasm. They look forward to their lessons and constantly ask "What are we doing this week".

The children like to tell us about times when they have put their skills into action e.g. abdominal thrusts and back blows for choking.

The training is delivered by trained support staff who update their training as necessary.

March 2011