North Wales pharmacist creates online learning resource for children about infection prevention and antibiotics

A North Wales pharmacist is helping parents who are home schooling their children access learning about infection prevention, microorganisms and antibiotic use.

Antimicrobial Pharmacist Kailey Sassi-Jones has developed a short series of lessons on the world of microorganism, infection prevention and antibiotic use.

The free bilingual resource has been emailed from Public Health Wales to all healthy school coordinators in Wales to share with their primary schools.

The modules are aimed at children in years three and four of primary school, but can be used by younger children with supervision, as well as older children who can expand on the set activities which follow the short presentation.

Resources include crosswords, word searches and other interactive activities to help children learn about what harmful organisms are and how viruses like the flu cause disease.

Kailey said: “Given what we’re all going through, I wanted to develop a package using the e-bug resources to help children understand what bugs and germs are, to help them have a better idea of what’s happening around the world with COVID-19.

“While the resource is purposefully not specific to Coronavirus, it does include information on what it is and how it’s transmitted within the wider context of other harmful organisms.

“The training is geared toward teaching younger children about what bugs are, and how we protect ourselves and others from infection.

“It’s been designed to be as accessible for as many pupils as possible. Younger children can enjoy the activites included, while older pupils could build on the learning included and develop their knowledge of how viruses and bacteria work.

“It’s easy for parents to use and hopefully fun for children to take part in as well.”

The free online resource follows on from the success of Kailey’s project with healthy school leads from Conwy and Denbighshire where bilingual ‘train the teacher’ sessions were delivered, facilitating the uptake of NICE accredited e-Bug materials in the classroom.

As well as being free for parents and carers to access at home, the modules are also being shared with schools across North Wales to support teaching in classrooms.

The first module introduces children to the world of microorganisms and was shared with all primary schools in Wales through healthy school leads and Public Health Wales.

The second module focuses on harmful microbes and introduce the concept of infection prevention, and the third module reinforces the importance of hand washing and skin health a timely and important resource with the reopening of schools

Further material is available in over twenty languages from www.e-bug.eu. You can find Kailey’s resources below:-

English – https://e-bug.eu/junior_pack.aspx?cc=wal_eng&ss=2&t=Introduction%20to%20Microbe

Welsh – https://e-bug.eu/junior_pack.aspx?cc=wal&ss=2&t=e-Bug%20Lesson%20Pack