On Saturday 18 and Sunday 19 March, 8 members of our academy community travelled to the Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue training facility based at RAF Waddington to participate in an immersive training experience for front line responders from a range of emergency services. The ATACC group, who organises these training events, is a world-leading provider of focused trauma and critical care courses, where candidates are exposed to real-life scenarios and environments, enhanced by actors and volunteers who portray specific roles and different levels of trauma.
On Saturday, staff and students were briefed on the roles they would be playing during an illegal rave scenario in a dark, smoke-filled warehouse. On Sunday, the group faced an entirely different situation, playing passengers who had been involved in a train derailment. These scenarios, lasting 20-30 minutes, were then played out eight times with different response groups. The ATACC training events attract medics and emergency service personnel from across the UK and from as far afield as New Zealand and the USA.
This was the second time that our post 16 students have been offered the opportunity to take part in this training, and currently Walton Academy is the only school in the UK involved in the ATACC group’s training programme. It is a hugely rewarding and unique experience, and particularly relevant to students studying performing arts or with an interest in pursuing a career in a medical discipline or any of the armed or emergency services. We are very much looking forward to taking another group of staff and students to participate in the next training event in May. Thank you to the ATACC group for making our academy community so welcome and for enabling us to offer this incredible opportunity as part of our post 16 enrichment programme.
