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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. My research questions are:

6. 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?

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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.

12. Findings

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

14. 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

15. 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.”

16. 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.”

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

18. 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

19. 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

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

21. 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

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

23. 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

24. Interviews

25. 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

26. 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

27. 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

28. 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!!!!!!

29. 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

30. 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

31. 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

32. 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

33. Discussion and Conclusion

34. 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

35. 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

36. 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

37. 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

38. 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

39. 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

40. References
BBC News (2006) ‘Pupils need first aid training’. Available from:
British Red Cross (2008) ‘Research shows children lack first aid skills’. Available from:
St. John Ambulance (2007) ‘Young first aider’. Available from: