SCHOOLS and colleges across the county were taught life-saving skills as part of Restart a Heart Day.

South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS) wants train more than 150,000 school children across the country in CPR.

Students at Cheney School, Abingdon and Witney College, Bartholomew School and Henry Box School were guided by SCAS staff and community first responders on Monday.

Restart a Heart Day was designed to encourage more people to learn how to perform life-saving CPR should they come across someone collapsed, not breathing and potentially in cardiac arrest.

Lead community responder manager at SCAS, Nic Morecroft, said: "We know that one of the big concerns members of the public have about giving first aid and chest compressions to someone who has collapsed and is not breathing is that it might harm the patient.

"Quite simply, however, it is not possible to make the situation any worse.

"Even if you aren’t an expert in giving chest compressions, it’s been shown from studies that you can at least double, if not treble, someone’s chances of survival by having a go at giving chest compressions.

"That’s why SCAS is delighted once again to be part of Restart a Heart Day which will get thousands more people trained in how to carry out effective CPR and use a defibrillator."

For every minute that passes without CPR starting on a person in cardiac arrest, their chances of survival reduce by 10 per cent.

From April 2016 to April this year, the survival rate in the area SCAS covers was 11.4 per cent.

The England average was 8.5 per cent but in some ambulance trust areas it was as low as 6.5 per cent.

SCAS has the most successful cardiac arrest survival rate out of the country's ambulance trusts, saving 163 patients since April 2016.

If the SCAS survival rate had been achieved by all English ambulance trusts, 925 more people nationwide would have survived a cardiac arrest between April 2016 and April this year.

Part of the reason for the trust's higher survival rates were due to bystanders intervening to perform CPR in nearly 50 per cent of cases.

Among those helping out at the session at Cheney School, Headington, was former SCAS commander Dick Tracey, who has previously backed the Oxford Mail's campaign to ensure nobody in the county is more than 10 minutes away from a public access defibrillator.

Ms Morecroft added: "We would like that to be as high as such places as Stavanger, Norway, where it is 75 per cent.

"But that is why Restart a Heart Day is so important.

"Anyone can learn these simple skills which one day, could mean you help save someone’s life."

Across the Thames Valley 33 schools took part in the scheme and on the day more than 3,500 students in the area were taught how to carry out CPR.