Education Bill

Memorandum submitted by Cotelands PRU (E 73)

1. Cotelands is a PRU in Croydon in Surrey. We decided to teach Emergency Life Support (ELS) Skills in our school because we feel it is one of the most valuable life long lesson our students and staff can learn.

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

4. Cotelands PRU currently teaches ELS to 30 children aged 14-16 per year.

5. They are taught ELS for 5 hours per year as part of a whole day tuition.

6. Cotelands PRU believes that ELS should be made a compulsory part of the National Curriculum in England because it is a very important life skill to have. We would like to encourage the Committee to amend the Education Bill to make this possible.

7. The Emergency Life Saving Day we hold every year is always well attended; pupils know they can get a valuable life skill that will be recognised by the work place and it can be put on their CV. Parents of pupils are welcome to join the group and the whole day becomes an enjoyable one for all involved.

8. Every year I tell the pupils about one pupil who was able to save her young son (we are a Centre for Teenage parents and EBSR pupils) from having to have skin grafts because of the way she dealt with a serious accident. She knew what to do because of our First Aid course; she was commended by Doctors and nurses at the hospital.

9. Every few years we do refresher training for staff to make sure they feel confident with doing this training with the pupils. They are happy to do such a valuable job.

March 2011