Background In the past, first aid for school children was provided by the school nurse, but over the years, this service has been eroded and does not exist anymore in Israeli schools. In 2014, the Ministry of Education, together with the ambulance services in Israel, Magen David Adom, have started a new first aid service that provide service to all schools in Israel. This paper describes the service and the data that were collected as part of it.

Methods A national call centre was established to respond to the first aid needs of all educational institutions in Israel. The service operates 7 days a week, between 07:30 to 16:30 throughout the school year. In an event of an injury, school staff call the centre, and the call is being taken within 15 seconds. The call centre is occupied at all time by first aids providers. Once a call is received, the service provider assess the situation as describe and decide whether a phone consultation would suffice, whether a first aid providers is required on site, or, in severe cases, whether an ambulance is required. Every call is recorded and entered to a database.

Results Overall, 31217 calls were received to the call centre of which 1% required ambulance, 16% were classified as urgent, 72% were classified as not urgent and 10% were classified as administrative calls. The majority of those injured were between 10–12 years old. The most common injury place was the playground, followed by sports facility and the classroom. Majority of the injuries occurred during break time. The most common anatomic location of injury was the limbs, followed the head. Most of the injuries occurred during paly, followed by slips and trips and by interpersonal violence.

Conclusions Traditionally, data on injury in the community was based on self-reporting, with very little data that is based on reporting of the care providers. This is one of the few, and most comprehensive study on injuries in schools as reported by first aid providers. As such, this study provides a unique insight on injuries of school children in Israel.