FIVE Causton Junior School pupils are representing Suffolk in a £1,700 first aid final.The pupils will travel to London on Tuesday for the St John's First Aid final after winning the Eastern round.

FIVE pupils from Causton Junior School in Felixstowe are representing Suffolk in a £1,700 first aid final.

The pupils will travel to London on Tuesday for the St John's First Aid final after winning the Eastern round.

Scott Bareham, Bethany Tayler, Kathryn Simpson, Laura Fisher and Hayley Kerr as reserve will be waking early to catch the 7.33am train to get to London Zoo, where the competition will be held.

Anglia Railways are sponsoring them and have given the five children and two teachers free tickets for their travel to London.

To win the £1,700 prize money for their school the finalists will have to show how they can react to situations involving heart attack victims, people writhing in pain with fractured bones and casualties who are choking.

Sue Moss, a teacher who helped run the school's first aid club, said: "It is basically first aid and how to react if there is an emergency. Various scenarios are set up and they have to arrive at the scene and organise further assistance."

She said: "They have to do three first aid tests and the four children have to do a team test which usually lasts about six to eight minutes."

The team of 11-year-olds from year six at the school will have to treat up to two casualties who will be actors with realistic injuries. They will get points for every procedure they complete correctly.

Mrs Moss said: "The judges have a judge per casualty. If they open the airways they get two points."

There will also be a second test, carried out in pairs, where they will have to deal with casualties with different injuries and complaints such as heart attacks or people who are unconscious.

The children have been practising at their after school first aid club since January. They are now ready for the final after winning the Eastern heat on Saturday, June 22, where they had to compete against other schools from Suffolk and Cambridgeshire.

Mrs Moss said: "I am very proud of them, they have been doing very well. .

"It is very realistic and can be very off putting for the children as there are pools of blood."

Actors from Casualty Union, who are used to practise major incidents such as train crashes, will be the children's casualties.

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