Children from a Gloucester school were taught one of the most important lessons of all thanks to a new initiative from the Great Western Air Ambulance Charity.
To mark National 'Restart a Heart' Day, pupils from Severn Vale School in Quedgeley were shown how to resuscitate someone who has suffered a cardiac arrest through CPR and defibrillators.
The assembly was lead by the Dr Johannes Vopelius from the Great Western Air Ambulance Charity, who instructed the students on how to use the 'DRS ABC' (Danger, Response, Shout, Airways, Breathing, CPR) method.
"This can happen anywhere at anytime." explained Dr Vopelius, after showing a case study video about a man who collapsed in public due to cardiac arrest.
"There is a lot of adults out there who are unsure of what to do in these situations - so that is why we are here."
The DRS ABC method contains essential steps of what to do if you are faced with someone appears to have fallen ill.
When put into groups to practise CPR on dummies, the students were first instructed to check for danger, such as an oncoming car. If there is impending danger, the resuscitator should move the patient to a safer place.
Then, students had to check for a response by loudly asking the patient if "can you hear me?". If no response was achieved, then the students were told that they would have to ring 999.
Dr Vopelius informed the students that, even if they forget the 'ABC' section of the method, the first part is the most important as the emergency call handler can talk them through the rest of the resuscitation methods.
After contacting the emergency services, the resuscitator is to open the airway of the patient by gently tilting their head back.
Whilst doing this, the students were told that they had to look at the patient's chest for any signs of breathing.
Dr Vopelius noted that the breathing of the patient should be '"normal" - gentle, rather than rapid or gasping.
The final step, but the one that people are the least confident on, is performing CPR.
At this stage, the students were taught to perform chest compressions on the patient to the beat of the 2008 hit 'Poker Face' by Lady Gaga, to restart their heart.
The Great Western Air Ambulance volunteers also tutored the Year 10 and 11 pupils on how to use defibrillators, which are in abundance in public places nowadays.
Carolyn Stead, Head of Health and Social Care at Severn Vale School stressed the importance of learning the invaluable skill of CPR.
"I think it's a really valuable skill for everybody to learn so that we all have the ability and potential to save a life one say." Carolyn said.
"It's been really inspirational, the trainers have been so involved and enthusiastic and there's quite a few students here today keen to go into the healthcare profession, so it's been nice for them to have the opportunity to meet people doing those jobs every day."
As a result of the session, the students received a certificate detailing the training they had taken part in.
This certificate can be put on their CV and on sixth form and college applications, which is useful as many of the students want to pursue a career that would utilise the skills they learnt during the session.
According to Carolyn, the careers that are accessible via Health and Social Care include medicine, midwifery, social work, physio, nursing, and childcare.
All the students seemed to be thoroughly engaged with the practical, with many of them already knowing the basics of first aid through their studies and passion for their prospective careers. Many of them are hoping to become paramedics themselves.
Alex, a Year 11 pupil, said: "If found it really helpful and entertaining in a way, I think this session will help me in the future, I'd feel comfortable using the skills outside of the session if I needed to."