CHILDREN from a Southampton primary school received a powerful lesson in how to save lives thanks to an innovative new scheme.

The youngsters at Kanes Hill Primary in Thornhill spent the day with the doctors and musicians behind the new charity called HeartBeatz UK.

This Hampshire-based organisation combines the medical expertise of doctors and nurses from local hospitals with the musical skills of the Portsmouth Music Hub to teach CPR in local schools.

And when they visited Kanes Hill they not only got children in on the act – but also their parents.

Headteacher, Kirsten Buist, said: “We were absolutely delighted to work alongside HeartBeatz UK to help increase awareness of CPR across our community.

“Every year in the UK 30,000 people will have their heart stop beating through heart attack or cardiac arrest.

“And with each minute that passes without CPR their survival rate decreases by 7-10%.

“If more of us know CPR skills then more lives will be saved and there is no better time to start that education than with children.

“We were also delighted to invite our parents to come along and join in too as the more people that learn CPR, the better.”

The HeartBeatz UK day at Kanes Hill began with the children learning a set of songs.

Each song taught the children the basics of CPR and how to use a defibrillator but, most importantly, to internalise the beat of 100-120 bpm which is needed for CPR.

The team of doctors then taught children and their parents how to do CPR using mannequins.

At the end of the day all the pupils were successfully declared as “HeartBeatz UK Heroes”.

Jennifer Rowley, of HeartBeatz UK, said: “We believe CPR is a life-skill that everyone should have the opportunity to learn.

“By collaborating with Portsmouth Music Hub, we are able to teach bystander CPR in a way that is fun and interactive, using music to re-enforce learning.

“We hope that teaching CPR to children at a young age will help ensure they know what to do if they find themselves in an emergency situation in the future.’