Children meet their helpers

Children at a St Albans nursery and infants school had a special visit from their local ambulance station recently.

Duty operations manager Tabatha Saunders and communications manager Gary Sanderson were invited along to Fleetville Infant & Nursery School to meet the children and show them around the ambulance. Throughout the morning, over 120 children were shown how to apply bandages, slings and dressings and have a look around the ambulance.

One of the Trusts non executive directors, Caroline Bailes, whose daughters Rebecca and Sophie attend the school said: "The nursery (age 3-4) and Year 1 (age 5-6) children had a fantastic morning thanks to Gary and Tabatha, who had kindly given up their own time to visit the school with a fully-equipped ambulance."

Gary and Tabatha talked to each group, explaining key parts of the job and even bandaging up a few lucky volunteers. Then each of the 130 children and the teachers got to have a look at all the equipment in the vehicle, followed by Tabatha demonstrating the lights and sirens. The children also received booklets, colouring books and pencils so they would remember their day.

Caroline added: "The playground was buzzing afterwards and the children had clearly learnt a lot from the visit, which formed part of their 'community' learning module.

Many of the parents have since told me how impressed they were by what their children had told them afterwards. For me, the visit clearly demonstrated the benefit of engaging with the local community and by using a school visit we touched not only the children but also their families. Many thanks again to Gary and Tabatha who were great with the children."