ANATOMY was brought to life – and death – for Parkside School students.

Older students at the Cullingworth school were able to watch a highly-realistic mock autopsy in the school’s drama studio

A medical specialist performed a detailed post-mortem on a live-size dummy in a mock-up of a morgue as part of their science lessons.

Parkside head of science Dr Hayley Evans said the session gave teenagers a fantastic opportunity to see their anatomical knowledge of the human body lifted out of the textbook and brought to life.

She said: “Students were given an in-depth persective on the intricate structures of the human body as well as an associated clinical pathology.

“The session was delivered by anatomists and clinicians who have trained at leading universities.

“Students who attended had hands-on experience dissecting various swine organs including the brain, heart, lungs, liver among many others.”

The post-mortem was carried out by the VIVIT Experience led by Samuel Piri.

Although the subject of the autopsy is a model man, his innards are real, taken from pigs because they are identical in size and structure to human pieces.

Organisers said: “The VIVIT Experience is a rigorously academic contextualised human body dissection.

“VIVIT is a semi-synthetic human cadaver, an artificial bespoke cadaver built and designed by Samuel Piri and the ITAE Group. VIVIT uses anatomy of swine origin to teach how the human body functions.

“Students see, touch and feel the dissection of the major anatomical cavities and their organs and organ systems. Supported by real cadaveric imagery, Sam and Scarlett demonstrate human anatomy like never seen before!”

The session also included the history of human dissection, right back to medical trailblazer Hippocrates in ancient times, through Galon anatomy, Leoardo’s paintings and the birth of the NHS.