CPR training courses in schools.

The Northern Beaches community would be happy if first aid and CPR was taught in all high schools across the Manly Warringah area. Simple Instruction already teaches Narrabeen Sports High School Year 11 students first aid and Year 8 students CPR.

Book in with Simple Instruction for a HLTAID003 Provide First Aid course, HLTAID001 Provide CPR course or the HLTAID004 Provide an Emergency First Aid Response in an Education and Care Setting. All courses are held at the Dee Why RSL. www.simpleinstruction.com.au

Teaching basic first aid in schools will be compulsory by 2020 but schools will be supported if they want to start earlier.

Plans to teach basic first aid in schools have been welcomed by the British Heart Foundation.

The charity calls the move a “decisive moment in the battle to improve cardiac arrest survival rates”.

There are 30,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in the UK every year and fewer than 10% of these people survive.

The survival rates double, however, in countries where CPR is taught in schools.

Now the government says that from 2020 learning those key skills should be mandatory for every pupil.

By the time they leave secondary school, all youngsters in England will have been taught how to administer CPR, the purpose of defibrillators, and basic treatments for common injuries.

Education Secretary Damian Hinds said: “Learning the basic skills of first aid and techniques like CPR will give young people the confidence to know that they can step in to help someone else in need and in the most extreme cases – it could potentially save a life.

“That’s why we took the decision to include health education alongside relationship education for primary school children and relationship and sex education for secondary children.

“These subjects are a crucial part of our work to ensure children learn the wider skills they need to flourish in the modern world.”

“Introducing CPR lessons into health education in all state-funded secondary schools is a significant step that promises to improve the odds of survival for countless people who have a cardiac arrest in the future.”

The government says it will offer support to schools who want to introduce the scheme this year, before it becomes compulsory in 2020.