Kids want first aid lessons at school, survey reveals
Grade 2 student Kavya Shah learnt first aid in class one day and was in a car accident with her mum the next. Luckily she knew exactly what to do
READING LEVEL: GREEN
Four in five Australian schoolchildren want to learn first aid in class.
Of more than 1000 respondents* to a Kids News poll, 79 per cent answered yes to the question “would you like to have first aid training taught at your school?”
Just 13 per cent responded with no and 8 per cent were undecided.
The results followed a call from St John Ambulance Victoria chief executive Gordon Botwright for government funding to expand the organisation’s First Aid in Schools program.
The program has taught life saving skills to 1.2 million Victorian primary school children over the past decade, with St John funding the program as part of its charitable* works during that time.
But children aged above 12 must complete St John’s regular first aid courses at a cost.
Mr Botwright told Kids News last month that $600,000 in Victorian Government funding would allow about 20,000 secondary students a year to also become first aid qualified in their classrooms.
“Exposing children in primary school to the initial* aspects* of first aid, but then continuing that into secondary school, means there’s going to be so much more confidence in the community,” he said.
St John Ambulance Victoria community programs team leader Tamara Pecer said the poll result showing most kids wanted to learn first aid “strengthens our push for more widespread implementation*”.
“For many years, we have been advocating* for all schoolchildren to be taught first aid,” she said. “It still isn’t mandatory* in schools (in Victoria).”
The Western Australian Government recently announced that from term 1 next year, first aid would be added to the state’s school curriculum – a move welcomed by St John Ambulance’s WA branch.
Ms Pecer said the Victorian First Aid in Schools program taught age-appropriate skills to help kids respond to the types of emergencies they were most likely to encounter*.
This included Prep students learning how to identify emergencies and use the “Danger, Response, and Send for help” strategy, and Grade 4 students being instructed how to check a person’s airway and breathing and to place a patient into the recovery position.
Grade 5 and 6 students were guided through CPR*, and a new St John Ambulance Victoria program had just begun teaching Year 9 and 10 students first aid tips and techniques for social settings.
“As they move on through the grades, students will revisit the basics of first aid in more depth each year,” Ms Pecer said.
“First aid is an important skill that everyone should know, no matter their age.
“Being able to identify that someone needs help, knowing how to look out for danger, and dialling triple-0 are all things that children as young as five can do.”
Grade 2 student Kavya Shah had to put her First Aid in Schools training into practise the very next day when she was in a car accident with her mother.
“I had completely blacked out but people around me told me that she was very strong,” her mum, Komal Shah, said.
“She asked me ‘are you awake, please respond’, but I was not responding so she immediately took my phone and called the ambulance. She was just amazing.”
The family had only recently moved to Melbourne from New Zealand and Ms Shah, who is now fully recovered from her injuries, said she did not know the emergency number to call in Australia at the time of the accident in June this year.
But thankfully her brave daughter, now aged 8, did.
“I don’t know whether it was luck or a coincidence* or something else, but doing the first aid education just the day before made her stronger and more confident, and it saved my life,” Ms Shah said.
Kids across Australia can also learn first aid via a game created by St John, First Aid Action Hero, which can be downloaded as an app on smartphones.
GLOSSARY
- respondents: people who respond to a question, survey or request for information
- charitable: to do with helping others in need, giving
- initial: first, the beginning
- aspects: particular parts
- implementation: the process of making something happen
- advocating: publicly recommending or supporting
- mandatory: something that must be done by rule or law
- encounter: experience, be faced with
- CPR: stands for cardiopulmonary resuscitation. It is a lifesaving technique that is used if someone’s breathing or heartbeat has stopped
- coincidence: when two or more things happen at the same time by chance and without planning
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QUICK QUIZ
- What percentage of children said they wanted first aid lessons at school?
- How many students has the First Aid in Schools program taught in the past decade?
- How much money does St John Ambulance want from the Victorian government to expand the First Aid in Schools program?
- How long after Kavya Shah did the First Aid in Schools program was she in a car accident with her mum?
- What was Kavya able to do to help her mum?
LISTEN TO THIS STORY
CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. First aid in schools
Do you know any first aid to help someone sick or in an emergency? If yes, what do you know and who taught you?
Do you know what DRSABCD stands for when applying first aid? If not, can you try to guess any of what these letters mean?
D -
R -
S -
A -
B -
C -
D -
Time: allow 20 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Personal and social, Critical and creative thinking
2. Extension
Do you think first aid should be included in all Australian state school curriculums like Western Australia is introducing? Where would it fit in the curriculum?
Write a letter to the premier of your state, asking for the funding and outlining the reasons why you think it’s an important program to run in schools.
Time: allow 25 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Critical and Creative thinking
VCOP ACTIVITY
Wow word recycle
There are plenty of wow words (ambitious pieces of vocabulary) being used in the article. Some are in the glossary, but there might be extra ones from the article that you think are exceptional as well.
Identify all the words in the article that you think are not common words, and particularly good choices for the writer to have chosen.
Select three words you have highlighted to recycle into your own sentences.
If any of the words you identified are not in the glossary, write up your own glossary for them.