What children in my school think about first-aid Ellie Leather aged 10

Introduction I’ve been doing first-aid as an evening club for a year I wanted to find out what other kids in my school think about first-aid and if they would like to do it

What other people say (1) BBC news (2006) reported that the British Red Cross said pupils need first aid training The British Red Cross asked 1960 adults and 90% said children should do first aid in school The British Red Cross said pupils aged 11 to 14 can learn basic emergency first aid and ages 14 to 16 can learn resuscitation techniques But St John Ambulance (2007) train children aged between 7 and 16 in schools in all these things

What other people say (2) Another survey conducted for the British Red Cross (2008) by The Children’s Forum asked 1100 children from 20 schools throughout the UK questions about first aid 60% of those aged 9 to 13 didn’t know enough to help themselves or others at an accident If first aid is given before the emergency vehicles arrive then children’s lives can be saved Over half the children in the survey had never learnt first aid 94% of children thought it was important to learn first aid and most wanted to learn more

My research questions are:

Are children in my school interested in learning about first aid? What are the reasons children in my school don’t go to a first aid club if they want to? Would the children in my school like to do it if there was a school club?

My sample I chose children in my school My school is close to the first-aid centre and I wanted to know why children don’t do it One class of children in each year group Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 Two adults: one from the first-aid centre the headteacher of my school

What methods I used Questionnaires for the children Year 3 (n=20) I used a questionnaire because I needed lots of data to get the answers to my questions After I finished analysing my questionnaires I interviewed the head teacher at my school and a teacher from St Johns I used open questions in my interviews to get better answers and recorded the interview on a Dictaphone

Data analysis On my questionnaire I had open and closed questions so I had to analyse them in different ways For the closed questions I tallied them I learnt how to code answers to open questions but I didn’t have enough answers so I couldn’t code them I used the data from my questionnaires to help me think of my questions for my interviews An adult listened to my interview recordings and typed them out – this is called transcribing I didn’t code them because I only had two Instead I picked out the most important points

Ethics (1) When I did my questionnaire I had to make sure I didn’t hurt anyone’s feelings It was quite hard I gave them a choice to do it or not to do it so they didn’t feel like they were being forced to do it I promised the questionnaires would be in a safe place and I would destroy them at the end of my project I also promised that any information they gave me would remain anonymous and confidential

Ethics (2) This is what I wrote in my introduction PLEASE DO NOT WRITE YOUR NAME ON THIS QUESTIONNAIRE Hi I’m Ellie. I’m ten years old and I’m interested in first aid so I want to find out what people think about it. Please can you help me by filling in this questionnaire? You don’t have to fill it in if you don’t want to. Any information you give me will remain anonymous and confidential. I will keep the sheets you give me in a safe place and destroy them at the end of my project.

Findings

Do children go to a first-aid club outside school?

Do children go to a first-aid club outside school? Hardly anyone from the school goes to a first-aid club outside school The few who do are in years and

Why do you like first-aid? I didn’t get many answers for this question because only four people in my sample go to a first-aid club and only three of them answered this question! They said: “Because if you are injured you can first-aid yourself.” “It’s so fun to be a first-aider.” “Because I like helping people.”

Why do you want to learn about first-aid? Only three people answered this question too! They said: “Because it’s fun.” “I like to learn more stuff about it.” “Because I can do it myself if I get hurt.”

Would children who don’t already learn first-aid like to learn it?

Why don’t you want to learn first-aid? Because its not something I would do Don’t want to be responsible Because there is too much blood Because I’m not really interested Because my mum won’t let me Because I don’t Because it’s silly I don’t like it Because it’s too gross

Reasons why children don’t go to an evening first-aid club OTHER REASONS Don’t know when it is Don’t have time Don’t know what it is Don’t know what to do there

If your school had a first-aid club, would you go?

If your school had a first-aid club would you go? Most of the girls and boys would go to a school first-aid club if the school had one But the boys in year four are not as keen to do it

Would you prefer a lunchtime club or an after-school club?

Would you prefer a lunchtime club or an after school club? Most of the children in all the year groups would prefer an after school club These results are nearly the same for both boys and girls

Interviews

School Liaison Officer for St. John Ambulance St. Johns can either run or support the first-aid clubs in schools They can only run after school clubs and not lunchtime clubs Older people are more aware of first-aid so St. John want to get more young people interested

School first-aid clubs Not many schools have a first-aid club But some schools just have St. Johns coming in to run short courses for children There are different ways of running a club/courses

School first-aid clubs ONE WAY St. Johns teach the first aid This is more expensive St. John have all the equipment ANOTHER WAY St. Johns teach teachers first-aid and the teachers teach the children This one is cheaper No equipment So St. Johns have to bring in special equipment when its needed

BUT CHILDREN COULD DO BOTH!!!!!! First aid clubs INSIDE SCHOOL More children likely to come Concentrate on learning first aid More difficult to get hold of equipment OUTSIDE SCHOOL Sometimes more difficult to get to Learn first aid and do other activities and outings Easy to get hold of equipment Might make new friends BUT CHILDREN COULD DO BOTH!!!!!!

Headteacher Surprised that so many children wanted to have a first-aid club or learn first-aid Surprised that so many prefer an after school club and that they would give up their own time Most of the clubs in school have come because the children have said they are interested in one particular thing This research project has shown that children are interested in having a first-aid club so the school would definitely consider having one

What do you think is better? An after school or a lunchtime club? AFTER SCHOOLCLUB More time More spaces available so can fit in with other clubs Children willing to give up their own time LUNCHTIME CLUB Too rushed Children might not be willing to give up their playtime

Possible problems 1 PROBLEMS Other clubs using the hall Finding someone to run the club The cost POSSIBLE SOLUTION Library probably big enough St. Johns could help or could train the teachers If St. Johns ran it school could have a discount School might be able to help with funding

Possible problems 2 POSSIBLE SOLUTION PROBLEM Too many people might want to do it POSSIBLE SOLUTION Courses could run for number of weeks so different groups could take turns Or school might have to decide which year groups can do it

Discussion and Conclusion

If I had given all the children in my school my questionnaires the results might have been more accurate I couldn’t do this because the other children in my research group had to hand out questionnaires too I was disappointed that I only had a few questionnaires back from year 6 because I couldn’t get the answers I needed

I wasn’t surprised to know that hardly any one in my school goes to a first-aid club I was surprised that the children who did go to a first-aid club were only in years 4 and 5 Because I only got a few questionnaires back from year six I wasn’t sure if there were more children that do go to a first-aid club There might be children in the other classes that go to a first-aid club but didn’t get the questionnaires

I didn’t get many answers to why people want learn first-aid or why they like it because not many of them belong to a club I don’t think it has affected the results of my research too much but I think it would be helpful to know more I got more answers to why don’t you want to learn first-aid I was interested in those answers because that was what I thought before I started but now I have learnt it it’s not boring and scary anymore because i know first-aid and know what to do

My results agreed with the survey conducted for the British Red Cross because most of the children in my school had never learned first-aid but most of them wanted to I’m not sure what the children in year six think because I only got two questionnaires back from them I don’t know whether this is because I gave them the choice to or because they weren’t interested in my topic

Before I did my research I thought that the main reason children wouldn’t come to the club is because it finishes too late But my research showed that it is because not many children knew where it was and if they did no one can take them So if there was a school first aid club it would solve all those problems Lots of children would like to learn first aid but they can’t because there isn't one they can go to in school

My research showed that most children would prefer an after school club Which is good because that means St. Johns could come in and run it There are still some things that need to be sorted out but I feel happy because my research might have made it possible for my school to have a first-aid club so that more children who want to learn first-aid can

References BBC News (2006) ‘Pupils need first aid training’. Available from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/5327512.stm British Red Cross (2008) ‘Research shows children lack first aid skills’. Available from: http://www.redcross.org.uk/standard.asp?id=45878 St. John Ambulance (2007) ‘Young first aider’. Available from: http://www.sja.org.uk/sja/training-courses/courses-for-young-people/young-first-aider