Education and training

British Red Cross

Improving first aid education in schools

Research by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) shows that 3 million people per year attend accident and emergency departments with injuries that could have benefited from the initial application of first aid techniques, and over a third of this group are under 15 years old. The British Red Cross believes that first aid is a basic life skill that everyone should learn, backed by its own research which found that a large percentage of young people would make the wrong treatment choice when trying to help someone in a first aid emergency.

It decided to launch the ‘Life. Live it’ campaign in order to tackle the patchy and inconsistent first aid education in schools. For the first time, numerous departments in the charity were brought together to run the campaign
Some 8,000 DVDs were sent out to schools and youth organisations, reaching an estimated 172,933 young people. Themed around a festival and demonstrating the benefits of knowing first aid, this represented a shift from previous communications which had tended to be more instructional. Furthermore, 291 peer educators were recruited and trained, providing first aid education to over 11,749 young people. For teachers, a new first aid education kit was developed and sent for free to 561 schools, while all 6,000 secondary schools in the UK received a sample CD and two complete lessons.

The charity’s most ambitious aim was to get first aid onto the national curriculum, an aim it achieved via public affairs activity, including the production of a robust evidence-based report setting out the case and how it could be delivered. As a result, first aid will be included in the English and Welsh curricula from September 2008, while assurances have been received that the new Scottish curriculum will follow suit.

Head of schools and community development Mairi Allan says the results have been phenomenal. “We’ve been blown away. We originally wanted to get first aid on the curriculum but then tracked back as we thought it would be too difficult. This just shows how important it is to aim high.”

Mairi Allan
Head of schools and community education
British Red Cross
44 Moorfields
London
EC2Y 9AL
020 7877 7238
www.redcross.org.uk
Reg no. 144283

Playbusters

Using Spanish to bring Glaswegian families together

Based in the east end of Glasgow, an area of high disadvantage with issues of poor literacy, Playbusters works to bring families and the community as a whole together through a variety of activities and educational projects. It has been shortlisted following the success of one seemingly unusual project, the Easy Spanish initiative, which offers Spanish language classes to toddlers and parents.

Born out of discussions with parents, the project started in 2005 as a one-off event for 200 children, the success of which prompted a pilot in 2006 at two nurseries. Following a thorough evaluation it has developed into regular classes for all ages and groups, even becoming a route for adults into further education thanks to a partnership with John Wheatley College. Recognition has come by way of a number of awards, including the European Languages Award, and praise in the Houses of Parliament from David Marshall MP, who called it “excellent example of the social renaissance of the east end”.

The classes, which are free of charge and offer a hidden educational agenda within a fun and relaxing environment, have been shown to improve not just the children’s Spanish speaking but also the grasp of their mother tongue. “It has proved to be very innovative”, according to Margaret Layden, project manager at Playbusters. “It has increased the numeracy, literacy and confidence levels of the children, and has improved family relationships - we now have three generations of families working together.”

Margaret Layden
Project manager
1345/1351 Gallowgate
Parkhead
Glasgow
G31 4DN
0141 551 0071
www.playbusters.org.uk
Reg no. 172894

St Paul’s Centre

Helping the unemployed into work

According to the regeneration team at the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham, “the single factor most likely to cause poverty is unemployment…  unemployed households are most likely to suffer other forms of exclusion and pass poverty and exclusion on to their children”. It concludes that “the key priority must be to equip local people for available jobs, and provide effective routes into training and employment”.

Indeed, the St Paul’s Centre’s own research had shown that one in four children in Hammersmith & Fulham live in homes where the head of the household has never worked, the levels of permanent exclusion from school in the borough are among the highest in the country, and up to 80 per cent of local crime is attributed to people under the age of 26. 

In response, it launched the Spear programme to help the unemployed into work by addressing the most common causes of underachievement, such as the absence of motivation, life skills, qualifications and opportunity. The programme includes interactive, classroom based group coaching, mentoring by trained volunteers, work experience placements in reputable companies and the opportunity to achieve a well recognised qualification.

“Of the young people we’re working with,” explains Jo Rice, executive director of Spear, “most don’t have any qualifications and have dropped out of the education system, and are in a spiral of underachievement. We put them on an upward spiral and give them their confidence back and a sense of direction.”

Since its launch in February 2004, more than 200 young people have completed at least one module of the Spear course, which now caters for 90 a year. During that period, an initially disappointing drop out rate of 50 per cent has been reduced to 22 per cent, while a survey of graduates from the scheme showed that more than 75 per cent are in work or education a year later.

“I am a really different person since doing Spear, you wouldn't recognise me,” says Claire, who has been working in a nursery for three years since completing the Spear programme. “I'm loving my job. I've got so much more confidence than I ever had before, and can't wait to set up my own business.”

Jo Rice
Executive director
Spear
The St Paul’s Centre
Queen Caroline Street
London
W6 9PJ
020 8748 5824
www.spearcourse.org
Reg no. 172934

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