Heartstart launch Garrowhill Primary November 2009 (30/11/2009)
For immediate release
Thursday 26 November 2009
Glasgow children get the chance to save a life thanks to ground-breaking partnership
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** Photo, Filming & Interview Opportunity **
Senior and junior pupils show ground-breaking peer tutoring initiative in action
Date: Thursday 26 November Time: 10am
Venue: Garrowhill Primary School, Springhill Road, Garrowhill,
Glasgow G69 6PP
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Glasgow’s secondary school pupils are teaching their primary peers emergency life-saving skills thanks to a ground-breaking partnership with British Heart Foundation (BHF) Scotland and Glasgow Education Services Determined to Succeed team. The programme is called Determined to Help.
This peer tutoring initiative – which now includes every area within the Glasgow City boundary – is the first on such a large scale in Scotland, and is being delivered with the support of the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) and St Andrew’s First Aid.
S4 pupils in the city are being taught simple skills that could save a life, and they are helping teachers to pass on these vital skills to the city’s primary six pupils. So far, 72 teachers have received the training to deliver emergency life support training (ELS), which covers simple life-saving skills, such as cardiopulmonary resuscitation and how to deal with choking and bleeding.
Glasgow City council’s pioneering initiative is being delivered through a partnership with Heartstart – the initiative coordinated by the BHF that teaches people of all ages what to do in a life-threatening emergency.
Jonathan Findlay, Glasgow City Council’s Executive Member for Education, said: “This is a very exciting development for our schools involved in the Heartstart programme. Peer tutoring gives children responsibility and enables them to learn skills for life. Every secondary school involved will have six to 10 peer tutors, who have been trained in life-saving techniques, including resuscitation. These teenagers will work with teachers to take the training they have learned to P6 pupils in our primary schools. Our aim is to have all S4 pupils and P6 trained up in life-saving techniques – that is nearly 11,000 young Glasgow people who will be able to help out if they were faced with a life-threatening emergency.”
Claire O’Neill, the BHF’s Community Resuscitation Programme Lead, says: “It’s really fitting to reach this milestone in Glasgow as it’s ten years since we launched our strategy to take ELS training into Scotland’s schools.
“Training is led by our partners in the Scottish Ambulance Service and, in Glasgow’s case, this is by paramedic Anne Harrison, Community Resuscitation Development Officer.
“The window of opportunity for successful resuscitation can be widened if bystanders give ‘basic life support’ in the form of chest compressions and rescue breathing. We are pleased to be working in partnership with Glasgow City Council, the Scottish Ambulance Service and St Andrew’s First Aid on this important project that will help ensure that Scotland’s next generation is equipped with the essential skills and knowledge to help save lives.”
St Andrew's First Aid are also key partners in the project, and have been involved with BHF Scotland in promoting Heartstart since its earliest days, providing support to the majority of the schools who have signed up.
BHF Scotland relies on donations of time and money to continue its life-saving work and is raising vital funds to place life-saving defibrillators throughout Glasgow. To find out more call 0131 555 5891, email scotland@bhf.org.uk or visit bhf.org.uk/glasgowappeal
Glasgow City Council: Aine Harrington/Fiona Ross, 0141 287 0918, email aine.harrington@glasgow.gov.uk or Fiona.ross@glasgow.gov.uk
BHF Scotland: Marjory Wood, 0131 561 3351, email woodm@bhf.org.uk. Clare Shaw, shawc@bhf.org.uk, 0131 561 3355. Out of hours call 07764 290381.
Scottish Ambulance Service: John Morton, 07974 017937, email jmorton@scotamb.co.uk
Notes to editors
(1) ELS (Emergency Life Support) is the set of skills needed to keep someone alive until professional help arrives.
- Heartstart is an initiative co-ordinated by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) to teach people what to do in a life threatening emergency: simple skills that save lives. Its aim is to encourage people to receive emergency life support skills instruction and to provide practical assistance to make this possible in the community, working with organisations such as the British Red Cross, St. John Ambulance, St. Andrew’s First Aid, and the Royal Life Saving Society UK.
- For more information about setting up a Heartstart UK schools programme, becoming involved with a Heartstart UK scheme in your area, or establishing a scheme, telephone 0131 554 6953 or email heartstart-edin@bhf.org.uk
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