Our Ready for Life programme is a two day course suitable for young people 16 years and older. The programme is designed to provide young people skills so that they are ready for life beyond school. Upon completion participants receive two industry recognised certificates each valid for 3 years. These are the Emergency First Aid at Work and First Aid for Mental Health Awareness certificates. We hope that the skills learnt and the qualifications gained will aid participants once they leave the school environment.

The Ready for Life programme has been designed to link with the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence. For more information about the programme and how it links with the Curriculum for Excellence please download our brochure here.

Our community facilitators provide workshops on a variety of first aid topics to both primary and secondary school classes. These sessions are tailored to be age appropriate, and suitable from P1 – S6.

We welcome the opportunity to support classroom learning of first aid, and are happy to work with teachers to link the relevance of first aid skills to different subjects. We also endeavour to ensure that all schools activities link in with the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence.

As these workshops do not form a formal first aid qualification we are happy to tailor the content to the groups needs, interests, class size, age, and duration.

In addition to providing first aid workshops we can enhance the learning of first aid skills by linking the need for first aid to a variety of social issues.

For example, we can discuss the relevance and importance of first aid for wound care in conjunction with providing education around knife crime.

These sessions incorporate a holistic approach to social issues faced by young people, and promote resilience and confidence in dealing with an emergency, as well as responsible decision making. We endeavour to provide all young people the tools they need to support providing first aid in all situations.

Where relevant we may utilise an inter-agency approach to these workshops to ensure that the sessions are kept relevant, engaging, and best support those in attendance.

St Andrew’s First Aid regularly attends health week and careers expos at both
primary and secondary schools.

We utilise these sessions to raise awareness of the importance of the role of first-
aiders, in addition to teaching young people valuable first aid skills.
To accommodate this format we can deliver talks or interactive sessions teaching
first aid skills over 15-30 minutes/group. Please note that timing can be tailored to
your school, so please feel free to contact us to ensure that our sessions meet your
requirements.

Our new First Aid Assemblies allow us to visit a school and teach a large group of pupils a specific first aid skill, this is a great attribute for a persons CV.

Our team will visit a school to deliver a first aid assembly to a whole year group, or school. Each session will have a maximum capacity set based on the skill being taught to allow for active participation.

Where possible we encourage schools to consider electing a group of up to 10 peer supporters. These young people will be given the opportunity to support their peers in all assemblies throughout the school day, working alongside our facilitators. Peer supporters develop confidence and leadership skills within this role. Furthermore they can go on to champion and demonstrate first aid skills within the school community following our visit.

Each assembly is designed to fit within the school timetable, running for 50minutes. We can hold up to 7 assemblies over one day at your school – one per period. Where peer supporters are being trained we require these young people to spend the first period of the day with our facilitator, in addition to all assemblies throughout the day.

These sessions currently run in secondary schools. Primary schools are welcome to contact us and we can determine if a First Aid Assembly or an alternative is most appropriate.

We would be delighted to see first aid being taught as part of the curriculum from primary school. We are currently piloting our Scottish Primary School Project within Stirling Council and hope that its success will guide future policy decisions.

The primary school project encompasses us providing teacher training and the resources required to equip schools to teach first aid within the classroom. Our primary school sessions total 4 hours of content which can be taught flexibly between P1-P7, allowing it to be easily incorporated into the school calendar. Once trained primary school teachers gain access to our digital resources, supporting them to deliver the training with age appropriate tools. Upon completion schools can apply for a certificate to be issued to all young people who have completed the course.

We are hoping to launch our secondary schools project late in 2022. This will build upon and refresh the skills learnt within the primary school project. The Secondary School Project would also see us deliver teacher training and age appropriate lesson resources. Upon completion young people will be awarded an Emergency First Aid Certificate, valid for 3 years.

Additionally, the secondary school project can be extended to a 12 week programme. The extended version is designed to meet the timeframe and skills needed for the Duke of Edinburgh award. Duke of Edinburgh participants will also have the opportunity to volunteer with us as they work on completing their award. 

This course is designed to increase awareness of mental health conditions, reduce stigma surrounding mental illnesses, and improve awareness of how to access professional support. In addition to promoting greater mental health awareness, young people also gain the following qualification – Award in Awareness of First Aid for Mental Health (SCQF Level 4).

Upon completion participants will:

• Have the skills, knowledge and confidence to recognise a variety of suspected mental health conditions.
• Know how to appropriately start a conversation around mental health and signpost to professional help.
• Gain an industry recognised certificate valid for 3 years.

These courses are trainer led, suitable for groups of up to 16 participants aged 16 or over, and run for 4 hours.