First Aid Club is a ten week course that is held on a Monday after school. The course is run by Mrs Duke and Mrs Anderson in the spring term for 12 pupils in association with the British Red Cross. This year all participants were successful in gaining a First Aid qualification when assessed by the British Red Cross Assessor at the end of the ten week period.
Mrs Anderson
One excellent opportunity available at KES is to do the Red Cross First Aid course which teaches the essentials of First Aid including CPR, dealing with choking and putting people into the recovery position. During the course, you also learn about symptoms and treatments for common illnesses and how to deal with bites, burns and stings. At the end of the programme you are given an assessment during which the qualified school nurses put these newly acquired skills to the test with both a quiz and a practical test. During the practical examination I had to demonstrate how to correctly bandage and elevation sling a wound, put a body into the recovery position and perform CPR on a dummy.
The course taught a lot about how to deal with medical situations in practice, putting great emphasis on how one’s own safety came before anything else and the stages of treatment from there onwards. It is a course that students won’t forget and although it is preferably never to have to put many of the teachings into practice, the course leaves you with the confidence that you could do so if required.
Annabel Winsor