Barnham pupils learn valuable lessons

Police officers, firefighters and members of St John Ambulance visited St Phillip Howard Catholic High School to take part in its Big Incident Day.

The event, now in its fourth year, took place on Friday and Monday and saw members of the emergency services take over the lessons of some 150 year sevens.

The school’s competence based curriculum co-ordinator, Anna Gannaway, said: “What is really important about the two days is the students get the opportunity to learn from the emergency services themselves - the people out there doing the job.”

The days saw the students take part in three sessions all of which taught valuable lessons.

During their time with West Sussex Fire and Rescue, the serious nature of hoax calls and their consequences was explored.

Firefighter Katie Robinson-Brown said: “In a presentation called Heat of the Moment we explained to pupils how serious making a hoax call is.

“In groups students then identified some of the possible consequences of making a hoax call, in particular what can happen if there is a real emergency at the same time.”

Students also watched as firefighters from Bognor Regis fire station’s red watch cut casualties out of a car, and were introduced to Barley the fire and rescue dog and his handler Baz Woods, who demonstrated how they would go about inspecting a fire scene.

Pupils were educated about the dangers of the internet and social networking sites during a session with PC Chris Finch, who also gave advice on how to deal with bullying.

Tips on basic first aid were given by members of St John Ambulance who taught students how to help an unconscious casualty and how to deal with a bleeding patient.