Children in all schools across Northern Ireland over the past 10 years have been given the opportunity to learn valuable emergency life saving techniques, thanks to the British Heart Foundation’s (BHF) Heartstart UK Schools initiative.
In addition to the existing Heartstart UK School’s pack, an additional resource specially adapted for children with Special Educational Needs (SEN) has been piloted in mainstream and SEN Heartstart schools across Northern Ireland. This resource is now available to all Heartstart UK Schools on LearningNI, C2K’s bespoke online learning environment. LearningNI has been created by and for the NI educational sector and has secure 24 hour access so teachers can collaborate and share good practice.
Stephanie Leckey, BHF’s Community Development Co-ordinator for Northern Ireland has been working in partnership with a range of health and education agencies to create opportunities for people of all ages to learn Emergency Life Support skills.
She says that showing children what to do in a potentially life threatening situation is an important way to strengthen the chain of survival.“The vast majority of cardiac arrests happen in the home. The Heartstart programme teaches children how to recognise a medical emergency and get help. Older children are also shown how to buy time until the emergency services arrive by performing CPR (Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation) if appropriate.”
Stephanie points out that even simple skills, like recognising the urgency of a situation or using the telephone to make a crucial 999 call, can save lives. “Teachers identified a need for additional resources for pupils with moderate to severe learning difficulties and this is the reason why this specific resource was developed to address the need of these teachers and pupils.”
To plug this gap Stephanie, a qualified nurse, worked in close collaboration with C2K’s Special Needs Consultant Lisa Brown, Pauline Baird (Assistant advisory Officer with the NEELB) and Florence Hand (Community Resuscitation Co-ordinator with Northern Health and Social Care Trust) to tailor the resources in LearningNI to make them more suitable for use in SEN schools and mainstream schools with Learning Support Units. Many of the teachers involved in the pilot also mentioned that they are using the resource pack for children who do not have English as their first language.
The BHF have been innovative in making emergency life support training available to all children regardless of their ability. There are currently 400 schools teaching this programme across Northern Ireland and a further 32 community schemes in local organisations including sporting organisations like the GAA and the Boys’ and Girls’ Brigades. To date the Heartstart initiative in schools has trained 841 instructors and over 19,000 pupils/other staff/parents in Northern Ireland.
The Heartstart programme for schools provides Emergency Life Support training for pupils and can usually be introduced as part of the curriculum. Stephenie explains,“The course can be delivered to children in one of two ways: as a stand alone course for children aged 10 and over; or as a staged programme for Key Stage 1 and 2 children.
Prior to the teachers receiving the resource and equipment they complete a one-day training session which provides them with the knowledge and skills to be a Heartstart Instructor. They then cascade the training down to other members of staff and children in their schools.
SEN teachers who in the past highlighted how the complex needs of their pupils meant they were excluded from using the many resources available to mainstream schools are pleased with the new resource pack.
Phillip Oldham, Heartstart Programme Co-ordinator at Lisanally Special School in Armagh said the resources are proving to be extremely popular with teachers and pupils in the school.“As a Special Needs School with pupils who have severe and/or profound learning difficulties, we’ve found that the resources provided in the form of instructor’s guide, skills cards, activity cards, DVD and manikins have been invaluable, allowing our pupils to get the most out of the Heartstart programme.
One of the first Special schools to sign up for the Heartstart initiative was Roddensvale School in Larne. Mrs Heather Stewart says that in the past teachers had to spend a considerable amount of time working on resources to simplify them for their pupils. “With Heartstart’s resources now on LearningNI, teachers can select the resources needed and download them in colour. This has been an excellent aspect of the scheme, ensuring all staff can easily access the brightly coloured resources, not just the staff member in possession of the pack at that time. This has also reduced the costs of colour photocopying photographs as the resources can now be downloaded and printed or used in conjunction with the SMART Boards in school. In the past we always had to try and adapt mainstream resources to meet the needs of our pupils so the introduction of this pack has been a revelation to us and has left us wondering how we ever managed without it!”
