“Once they got down here and had a go, and see what it’s all about, it’s really changed their opinion,” she said.

TAFE First Aid trainer Luke Berger said he takes the classes through a mostly hands-on course for a Provide Basic First Aid certificate. He took the class of students through Basic Life Support with CPR, on Tuesday and managing injury and illness on Wednesday.

“Which covers all your bites and bandaging, asthma, burns and that sort of thing, anaphylaxis,” Luke said. “What they didn’t realise is they have defibrillators at schools, and epi-pens and none of them know how to use them.” 

Students were very interested in the resuscitation aspect of the course, and they gathered around Little Anne CPR training manikins outside on the grass. Luke explained the drill and five students at a time took turns approaching the manikin, checking for danger, calling triple-0, looking for vital signs, providing CPR and finally rolling the victims into the recovery position.

Jakob Haines said he had filed away a critical piece of information from the course.

“When you’re doing CPR, no matter what, keep pushing on them,” he said.

Leanne joined the group providing life support to the manikins, and helped student Annie Munro administer CPR to an infant with two fingers. She felt the course was a reality check for the young people who were initially hesitant about learning first aid.

“It is serious stuff. If anything happens, and some of these kids play sports and that, and a lot of them have got elderly parents, it’s good for them to learn it in case they need to do it on them,” she said.

“I think it’s really opened their eyes up to this could happen and they might be the ones who come along and save them.”