Military Children Learn to Save Lives

Children from service families (and their peers) had the exciting opportunity to learn how to save lives and explore health careers in a free club run at their school during the summer term.

Generation Medics have been inspiring children from Wendover Church of England Junior School during the five-week after-school club programme funded by Health Education England Thames Valley (HEETV). The club has just come to an end as the school welcomes their summer break.

The children had opportunities to meet Generation Medics’ team of health professionals. During their visits, the team have educated the children through fun and engaging activities about health, how to save a life and providing insights into different careers available within the health sector. Catriona Martin, Business Manager at the Junior School, recognised the importance of getting young children passionate and confident about health care.

‘We find that girls especially tend to think even at this age, that they are really bad at Maths and Science…even when they are getting really good results. So, it’s really good that they’ve had the opportunity to get involved with the fun activities run by Generation Medics and link the learnings back to possible future careers in science and medicine.’

The Healthcare Club has given the children the opportunity to explore careers in health, engage with professionals and learn how to save lives using a variety of fun formats. One of the club attendees, Megan, 11 yrs old, commented “(The Healthcare club) is more interesting than normal clubs, I’ve learnt how to save a life, met real people who work in health and it has made me want to become a scientist or work in health more than before.”

The clubs have allowed the children to explore their curiosities for health in engaging, interactive and practical ways. This included learning what to do in different emergency situations, learning about vital organs and asking questions to real professionals.

Chloe, 11 years old, the daughter of serving military personnel, expressed how the club helped her: “This club is really helpful and good for me. Usually I struggle with stuff like maths and science, but I understand it better in these clubs”

Rhianna, 10 years old, also found the clubs more engaging: “At the club, I find it a lot easier, as you go into a lot more detail and tell us more about how things work and it was interesting to see how that is used in real jobs”

As part of the funded after-school club programme Generation Medics will be delivering clubs at 12 schools across the Thames Valley area in the hope of inspiring and informing young people to consider health careers.

Catriona, Business Manager at the school, fully recommends Generation Medics services, saying: “Yes, definitely. It’s something really different to normal clubs like sports or crafts. We think the team have been brilliant and have run it really well”