By Isle of Wight Observer
Following the success of the IW NHS Trust Ambulance Training and Community Response Services (ATCoRS) Restart a Heart day last October, when over 1000 people were trained in life saving skills, the team now want to ‘adopt schools’.
On 1st February 2019 letters will be sent to every Island school and home educated children (via the IW Council) to introduce their ‘CPR Guardian’, a skilled IW NHS Trust Ambulance Tutor from the ATCoRS.
The ATCoRS Tutors have split the Island schools into four areas with each tutor adopting the schools in their specific area and becoming their CPR Guardian. They will then offer free CPR training sessions throughout the year to their allocated schools targeting specific year groups, in a pledge to help make every Island child a lifesaver.
This comes as the Education Secretary, Damian Hinds, announced that all children in England are to be taught CPR as part of the school curriculum by 2020. The basic lifesaving skills are part of Government plans for health education to be taught in every school, strengthening the teaching of health, sex and relationships education.
Louise Walker, Head of the ATCoRS explains; ‘We know first-hand only too well how important it is for people to learn lifesaving skills and we are thrilled to be able to give this opportunity to our schools. We work very closely with the British Heart Foundation and the Resuscitation Council UK and pride ourselves on delivering high quality, evidenced based teaching in a relaxed learning environment. All of the ATCoRS Tutors are very excited about this venture and can’t wait to get the programme rolled out.’
Isle of Wight Observer