SCHOOL NEWS // HELPING THE NHS
HELPING THE
NHS
A mixture of staff volunteered to produced more than 500 face shields in a week to meet requests from the neonatal intensive care unit and A & E unit at Hull Royal Infirmary , the intensive care unit at York Hospital , the cancer ward at Castle Hill Hospital , GP surgeries , care homes , St Leonard ’ s Hospice , a special needs school and a secure mental health unit .
Jenny McDowell , Head of Chemistry , began the drive when she contacted St Leonard ’ s Hospice and local GP practices to ask if they needed any safety glasses from our school ’ s Science labs . Their responses showed there was a clear demand for PPE equipment , and Mrs McDowell was also concerned about her GP sister and colleagues helping to fight the coronavirus in Rotherham .
I took the decision , very early on , not to use the 3D printer ; they are very slow and can be unreliable so I had been thinking about using the large bed industrial laser cutter instead . I had been sat at home thinking about how the school could help when Jenny Mc Dowell emailed me with the initial request to make face visors for her sister . The headmaster agreed to an initial , short production run and Jenny and I set to work to produce an initial batch of 45 , taking about ten hours to produce them .
This was not going to be sustainable and we had run out of the clear acrylic for the frames , there were far too many parts and they were too fiddly to assemble . At this stage I must flag up one of the silent hero of the hour in that Stephen Ward , Head of Physics , sacrificed quite a few precious rolls of OHP acetate to provide the clear screens . The problem with doing a good deed is that it often comes back for more and , as with a lot of other school DT departments around the country who had taken up the cause , we suddenly found ourselves being approached for more .
When large hospitals are asking , along with GP ’ s , care homes and charities there is not a lot you can do but help and Toby gave us the green light to make some more .
At this point Sheena McNamee and her amazing persuasion skills came into play in getting the ball rolling organising volunteers to help make the visors . I simplified the design to be made from just four pieces instead of from over ten and to be clip together rather than glued . Over four days , a revolving team of eight of us made over 500 masks .
The trickiest bit being getting hold of elastic , to which thanks must be given to Heather Young for buying discounted materials from a local hardware shop in Market Weighton , Dan Cimmerman for letting us raid the Art departments supply , Kim Burnside and Joe Metcalf from giving from their own supplies . Oh and Stephen Ward - I ’ m still not sure if he knows just how much he actually supplied from his OHP stock .
The helpers included : Heather Young , Steff Ryan , Kim Burnside , Charlie Lambert and his partner , Sheena McNamee , Gareth Sheppard
Staff members from across the School have also been joining the drive to help protect key workers . Kim Burnside , Day Matron at Fenwick Smith House , has also been busy sewing NHS drawstring bags and scrubs .
Heather Young , Head of Religious Studies , is a volunteer NHS responder and has been knitting hearts for intensive care patients and bereaved families . Head of Geography Rebecca Brennan has been active in the local community , collecting medication , shopping and distributing Covid-19 leaflets .
Art teacher Olivia Morris is an area coordinator for Pocklington ’ s volunteer community team , supporting the isolated and vulnerable , and Prep
School Year Two teacher Romney Walton is also part of the community hub . Year One teacher Bonnie Steel has been making face masks with her children for the Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust .
Many Prep School pupils have created colourful posters in support of key workers and keeping communities safe , and Year Two pupil Sawyer has become a pen pal with John , a 100-year-old resident of a Royal British Legion care home .
Chatta , the award-winning online learning approach developed in partnership with Pocklington School , is available free of charge to families during the crisis . So far , more than 3,000 families in 20 countries have downloaded the ChattaClub app to receive daily activities by email or , for older children , the Chatta Club + app , to receive weekly activities .
THE POCKLINGTONIAN 19