North West Schools urged not to miss out on the biggest first aid lesson ever

Claudia Winkleman supports the St John Ambulance's Big First Aid Lesson

Over 100 schools in the North West have signed up to St John Ambulance's Big First Aid Lesson with just a month to go until it is broadcast. The event is a free, one hour, online first aid session hosted by television presenter Claudia Winkleman and will be streamed into classrooms on Friday 12 June.

The charity is helping to address public opinion in the North West that first aid lessons should be a national curriculum requirement, according to research it recently carried out.

Furthermore, its research also found that nearly 59% of children in the North West have no life saving knowledge at all, leaving them without the skills to deal with basic emergency situations such as identifying if someone is breathing or how to help someone who is choking.

With only a month to go until the event, schools in the North West are being encouraged to tune into the lesson so that every young person has the access to learn essential first aid skills. So far, the Big First Aid Lesson will be reaching over 130,000 school children nationally with over 1,000 schools signed up, but there is still time for more classrooms to join.

The lesson will combine first aid training and 999 scenarios with real life stories, as well as plenty of opportunities for pupils to join the conversation via Google Hangouts. It is aimed at students between seven and 16-years-old.

The only equipment schools will need is an internet connection and a screen (such as an interactive whiteboard) for their pupils to watch in the classroom or during assembly. This year, the event will focus on first aid skills that might be needed over the summer holidays and pupils will learn how to confidently deal with head injuries, asthma attacks and anaphylactic shock, which can happen to people who have allergies.

Graham Ellis, Regional Training & Community Projects Manager at St John Ambulance said: "Our Big First Aid Lesson addresses the public's desire for first aid education in the classroom while it doesn’t feature in the national curriculum. We hope they can help us motivate their child’s school to take part – it could be the most important lesson they ever learn.

"Like parents and teachers, we want to give children the best start in life by giving every young person the chance to learn first aid. There is nothing worse than feeling helpless in an emergency and although we hope they’ll never need to use these skills, they can be a real life line.’

Claudia Winkleman, a TV presenter and mother of three, said: "The Big First Aid Lesson is a fantastic and engaging way of teaching students the skills they may need to help keep a classmate or a family member safe in an emergency while they’re out on the playground or enjoying their summer holidays. All schools should make teaching young people basic first aid a top priority."