St Illtyd’s Catholic High School in Cardiff, welcomed the return of St John Cymru, teaching enthusiastic pupils lifesaving skills. St Illtyd’s and St John Cymru have been working together to improve individuals first aid skills since 2012.
Each year, the school invites St John Cymru to deliver First Aid Awareness sessions to every Year 7 pupil.
Pupils recently took part in a first aid training session from Wales’ leading first aid charity, St John Cymru, where they learnt basic first aid skills including; how to manage an incident, treating an unresponsive casualty, how to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and what to do if someone is choking.
Both staff and students value the training St John Cymru provides. David Thomas, Headteacher of St Illtyd’s said: “We are delighted that St John Cymru are able to provide this training to the pupils in our school.”
“It is a skill for life and it has already had an effect with some of our pupils using the skills and knowledge gained to act in an emergency situation. It makes a difference and saves lives.”
Year 7 pupil, Lexi May said: “I really enjoyed our first aid session with St John Cymru. I feel a lot more confident that I would know what to do in an emergency.”
All pupils felt that they had learnt something new by the end of each session and would know what to do when faced with such life-threatening situations.
With the help of St John Cymru community trainers, the charity has trained over 9,000 people in lifesaving first aid this September and over 41,000 so far in 2019, meaning hundreds more lives could be saved in Wales.
St John Cymru Director of Training, Jon Phillips, said: “We see time and again the difference teaching children and young people lifesaving skills makes to them and to those in their community.
“We believe first aid should be for everyone and that every child in Wales should be equipped with the confidence and skills needed to step in and help someone when they need it most.
“We thoroughly enjoyed getting to know and teaching the pupils of St Illtyd’s School first aid and helping to inspire the next generation lifesavers,” he added.
