Glory for national schools' competition winners

Lantern Lane Primary School and Drayton Manor High School were crowned junior and senior National Schools' First Aid champions by WICKED actress Sarah Earnshaw in the finals of the St John Ambulance competition.

Teamwork wins the day

The contest, held at the Natural History Museum in London on 23 June, saw 11 teams compete in each category to be champions but none could match the knowledge and teamwork of the Nottinghamshire and London pupils.

The five-strong teams, who learnt first aid at school, had already seen off local rivals in a regional round by showing their ability to stay calm and in control, while working as a team. They challenged other junior and senior schools by confidently taking the lead in scenarios such as how to handle a dog bite, dislocations and an amputation.

Winners praise first aid

Jazzmin Arundell from Drayton Manor High School, said: 'We're ecstatic and surprised to have won this award. It's such a good thing to learn first aid and we get to apply what we’ve learnt during events like sports day and help others. And if we hadn't learnt first aid we wouldn’t have been able to enter a competition like this.'

Zafar Khwaja, a teacher at Drayton Manor High School, said: 'The school has done fantastically well to win. First aid is such an important life skill that all students should learn before they leave school.'

WICKED actress presents awards

Prizes were given by Sarah Earnshaw who plays good witch Glinda in the hit west-end musical WICKED. She presented Lantern Lane Primary School and Drayton Manor High School with their awards of £1750 prize money to be spent on equipment for their school and team winners also received individual prizes.

She said: 'First aid is so important. You can't just wave a magic wand and make everything better. You have to know what you’re doing and be confident that your first aid knowledge can be the difference between a life lost and a life saved. It's inspiring to see so many young people learning such an important skill and be so calm and in control.'

All participants learnt their first aid skills through the Young first aider course, St John Ambulance's interactive training pack which is easy for teachers or youth clubs to use. For more information please call 08700 10 49 50 or visit http://www.sja.org.uk/.

St John Ambulance have formed a partnership with WICKED and will be producing a resource for teachers so more young people can learn first aid.