We were very lucky to get a surprise visit this morning from Kristie, a St John's Ambulance officer.

Kristie, whose son Ayrton (Y2) and Marcello (Y5) used to attend our Pre-School, thought that our Pre-School tamariki (children) might enjoy looking in the back of an ambulance as well as developing more emergency awareness.

We had turns at getting into the back of the ambulance, where Kristie showed us some of the things that a paramedic can do for you if you are sick or hurt. We talked about who might need to go in an ambulance and that it was not a scary thing to do, because the ambulance officers are there to help us. Kristie also talked with the tamariki about learning our home address, an important thing to know if anyone ever needed and ambulance.

Kirstie also showed us how the bed came out of the ambulance and how the legs dropped down so that the ambulance officers do not have to carry the bed around. Ms Libby kindly offered to be our pretend hurt patient to show how the bed worked. Kristie then turned on the lights and the sirens. 

This experience highlighted to the tamariki the role of emergency services in our community and what the paramedics do as part of their job. Opportunities like this let our tamariki experience things that happen outside the Pre-School boundary, interacting with other people, places and things.