The Resuscitation Council UK (RCUK)has released the 2025 Resuscitation Guidelines, bringing important updates that will shape first aid training across all sectors – including schools, colleges, and special education environments.
For education providers, these updates reinforce the vital role staff play in safeguarding pupils and responding confidently in emergencies – from playground incidents to serious medical events.
At Ruth Lee, we understand that preparing school staff for real-life emergencies requires realistic, hands-on training. The new guidelines highlight exactly that – with a stronger focus on catastrophic bleeding control, effective CPR, and scenario-based learning.
What’s Changing for Schools and Education Settings
The 2025 updates include several key points that are highly relevant to those responsible for pupil safety and first aid provision in schools:
🩸 Life-Threatening Bleeding Control – For the first time, first aid guidance includes specific training for catastrophic bleeding. Staff will learn how to recognise and manage severe injuries, including the correct use of direct pressure, tourniquets, and haemostatic dressings. While rare, these incidents can occur following serious playground accidents, traffic collisions near school sites, or incidents involving tools and equipment.
❤️ CPR and Airway Management – The guidelines refresh key CPR techniques, emphasising quality compressions, early defibrillation, and effective airway management. Staff are encouraged to practise these skills regularly to ensure confidence and accuracy in a real emergency.
👶 Child and Paediatric Resuscitation – Updated paediatric guidance ensures that those working with children – including nursery, primary, and SEN settings – can deliver age-appropriate CPR and respond effectively to choking or respiratory arrest.
🧠 Bystander Response and Simulation – The guidelines promote simulation-based training to help first aiders respond instinctively under pressure. Modern blended learning tools, such as RL360, support this approach by combining virtual training environments with physical manikins, helping schools create memorable, realistic training experiences.
Why It Matters in Education
In schools, quick and confident first aid can make all the difference.
Staff may find themselves dealing with situations such as:
- Serious playground or sports injuries
- Medical emergencies involving existing conditions (e.g. asthma, epilepsy, diabetes)
- Accidents involving tools, equipment, or glass in workshops and labs
- Self-harm or behavioural incidents in SEN or secondary settings
By ensuring first aiders are trained to manage life-threatening bleeding as well as CPR and airway emergencies, schools can provide a safer environment for both students and staff — and demonstrate compliance with national standards and inspection expectations (e.g. Ofsted, local authority requirements, and DfE guidance).
Training Made Realistic with the Ruth Lee Trauma Rescue Manikin
To meet these new training standards, schools and training providers will need tools that make first aid scenarios feel real.
The Ruth Lee Trauma Rescue Manikin is designed to do exactly that – combining CPR, airway management, and bleeding control simulation in one durable manikin.
It allows teachers, first aiders, and school nurses to practise realistic emergency scenarios, including:
✅ Controlling catastrophic bleeds with direct pressure or tourniquets
✅ Performing CPR and airway management with compatible CPR torsos
✅ Handling and moving a realistic casualty safely
By using the Trauma Rescue Manikin, schools can prepare staff for the full range of emergencies they may face – from minor injuries to life-threatening incidents – ensuring that every response is calm, confident, and effective.
Building Confidence and Readiness
Ultimately, the 2025 Resuscitation Guidelines aim to improve bystander confidence – ensuring that anyone trained in first aid can step up and act when seconds count.
For school staff, this means being ready not just to call for help, but to provide it – delivering the care that could save a pupil’s life while waiting for professional responders to arrive.
Simulation-based tools such as the Ruth Lee Trauma Rescue Manikin and the RL360 blended learning platform make this possible, helping education providers embed realistic first aid into staff training, inset days, and ongoing CPD programmes.
Preparing for Change
Updated courses and teaching materials will be available from January 2026, so now is the time for schools and training providers to review their first aid provision.
By adopting realistic training solutions and aligning early with the new standards, schools can stay ahead – ensuring that every member of staff feels confident, capable, and ready to respond in an emergency.
👉 Contact us today to find out how our Trauma Rescue Manikin can support your school’s first aid training in line with the 2025 Resuscitation Guidelines
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