Saving a Life through PSHE with the UK Sepsis Trust

The UK Sepsis Trust has created resources for PSHE to educate children, teachers and parents of the dangers of sepsis.

As Abraham Lincoln once said, ‘Next to creating a life, the finest thing a man can do is save one’.

Now teachers, imagine if you could achieve this by teaching a subject that many of us never plan to teach when we train as teachers, PSHE!

As the PSHE Association points out, ‘ PSHE education helps pupils to stay healthy, safe and prepared for life – and work – in modern Britain.’ So what better way to give students the knowledge to deal with a deadly condition such as sepsis for future life?

Here at The UK Sepsis Trust we have produced a bank of lesson plans and accompanying PowerPoints for each Key Stage on the topic of sepsis. Each lesson plan comes with teacher notes, embedded videos and has been produced in collaboration with teachers at the relevant Key Stage for the resources. There are resources that be printed off and shared with parents so that the conversation around sepsis continues into the family home.

A little on sepsis – there are approximately 245,000 cases and 48,000 deaths annually in the UK. To give these figures some context, they are higher than those of breast, bowel and prostate cancers and road traffic accidents combined. Around 80,000 survivors annually end up having long-term physical or psychological effects! Around 10% or 25,000 of the cases each year are in young people, so this is a very real and dangerous condition that teachers, students and parents should be aware of.

The good news is, that if sepsis is spotted early enough, it can often be treated with antibiotics and a full recovery can occur. The bad news is, that one in three people do not know that sepsis is a medical emergency.

Together with schools, we want to change the narrative on sepsis. We want it to be discussed with students at every Key Stage, so that as they progress through their school careers, they have an increased understanding of the dangers of the condition.

Teachers can register for the resources at: https://sepsistrust.org/savvy/sepsis-savvy-resources-for-schools-sign-up/

Since launching in Mid-November at The Schools and Academies Show in London, over 260 organisations have signed-up. With over 32,000 educational establishments in the UK, we still have a way to!

Can you help?!

The author

Brian Davies

Ex-teacher now Corporate Fundraising Manager at UK Sepsis Trust.

https://sepsistrust.org/