The children of Dalneigh Primary School in Inverness received a visit from the Highland Training Group who gave them basic CPR and first aid training.

The company, which is based in Inverness city centre, usually delivers health and safety training to a multitude of Highland business clients, the majority of them being adults, so training children at Dalneigh Primary was somewhat a change of environment.

The youngsters had the chance to learn skills from Sammy MacNeill and Gerard Paton, both from Inverness.

The training company made sure a 19-strong class of P1 pupils knew in which part of the body the heart was, and encouraged movement with the children, asking them to jump and run on the spot, highlighting that their heart beats faster as they exercise.

The experts then discussed with the class what they would do if they were in a scenario where someone was lying down and unresponsive. If they couldn't feel a heartbeat, the children were encouraged to call 999 and then perform CPR. The children were invited to learn CPR on small inflatable dolls, and with this they all sang in unison to the well-known song Staying Alive. The team finished the session by awarding the children certificates commending their efforts in learning life-saving instructions.

P1 teacher Michelle Paterson said: "For five and six-year-olds, it was great to see how engaged and interested in it they were, they all seemed to enjoy it and [the content] was aimed at a good level for them.

"The children did well considering this was their second visit of the day."

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They had a prior visit in the morning from the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, which was also part of a health week at the primary school.

Sammy (38) said: "My daughter is actually in this class and I think it is important that kids as young as five and six are educated on how to potentially save lives.

"As I used to be a nursing student myself, I am passionate about people learning basic first aid training. Our company works alongside the Resuscitation Council and their Restart a Heart campaign and they believe, as do I, that first aid should definitely be something which is part of the academic curriculum."

The operations manager of the group, Gerard Paton (37), said: "I have two young kids myself, one is finishing primary and the other is in high school. I realised there was nothing out there for my kids when they were growing up apart from a few things they'd see on the television or online."

Sammy and Gerard hope to run similar sessions in a primary school at least once a month. Both stressed the importance of these visits as being interactive and informative with regards to meeting youngsters face-to-face.

Sammy added: "We have already made a number of connections today for neighbouring schools that also want us to visit them."

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