National Schools' First Aid Competition 2010

Lantern Lane Primary School and Drayton Manor High School were crowned junior and senior National Schools' First Aid champions by WICKED actress Sarah Earnshaw in the finals of the St John Ambulance competition.

The contest, held at the Natural History Museum in London on 23 June, saw 11 teams compete in each category to be champions.

Jazzmin Arundell from Drayton Manor High School said: 'We're ecstatic and surprised to have won this award. It's such a good thing to learn first aid and we get to apply what we’ve learnt during events like sports day and help others. And if we hadn't learnt first aid we wouldn’t have been able to enter a competition like this.'

This year’s prizes were given by Sarah Earnshaw who plays good witch Glinda in the hit west-end musical WICKED. She presented Lantern Lane Primary School and Drayton Manor High School with their awards of £1750 prize money to be spent on equipment for their school and team winners also received individual prizes.

She said: 'First aid is so important. You can't just wave a magic wand and make everything better. You have to know what you’re doing and be confident that your first aid knowledge can be the difference between a life lost and a life saved.’

The National School's First Aid Competition provides young people in schools the opportunity to practice their first aid skills in a realistic, fun and active manner.

Schools may enter up to three teams, but may not enter more than one regional competition.

All participants learnt their first aid skills through the Young first aider course, St John Ambulance's interactive training pack which is easy for teachers or youth clubs to use. For more information please call 08700 10 49 50.

The winner and runner up of the senior competition will be invited to take part in the Young Grand Prior Competition.

This competition is based on the Young first aider course available from St John Ambulance.

St John Ambulance have formed a partnership with WICKED and will be producing a resource for teachers so more young people can learn first aid.