IT’S a partnership that fuses the best of Blue Peter with Tomorrow’s World and it’s going to save lives during the coronavirus pandemic.
Last Thursday, a school teacher started making facemasks for NHS staff using not sticky backed plastic, but clear PVC sheets supplied by a stationery firm.
They are held in place using plastic headbands made to size by a laser cutter. These can be sterilised and reused, while the faceguards can be safely disposed.
It is the brainchild of Mark Smith, the head of design technology at Shinfield-based school Leighton Park.
Since he started last week, he has been making up packs containing 10 headbands with 100 A4 PVC sheets, which have been donated by the school’s Reading-based stationery suppliers Frasers Office Supplies. It is hoped that each headband can be re-used a minimum of 10 times.
The school said that the original template for the faceshields was created by a company called Kitronik who had a three-piece design for the laser cut element.
This was modified substantially and redesigned by several skilled DT teams in a variety of schools including Leighton Park and Abingdon School to create a two-piece laser cut design which is both quicker to produce and more efficient as it uses less polypropylene.
The original target was to make 200 face shields for the Royal Berkshire Hospital, but it has also supplied six GP surgeries, and two other public-facing organisations who care for vulnerable people.
It is now planning on creating 10,000 such kits and has set up a GoFundMe page to pay for additional materials – more than £7,000 has been donated since Friday. The link for donations is bit.ly/LP4NHS.
The staff team at Leighton Park are now able to create 48 headbands in 90 minutes. The school says that would be a total of 768 headbands over a 24 hour-period and if each headband is used 10 times, it creates almost 8,000 useful faceshields for the NHS per day.
And other schools in the area are keen to help by donating their laser cutting equipment. Signed up are:
- Denefield School, Tilehurst
- Prospect School, Reading
- Reading Blue Coat, Sonning
- Holme Grange, Wokingham
- Forest School, Winnersh
- Brakenhale School, Bracknell
- The Holt School, Wokingham
The intention is that Leighton Park will supply materials and the cutting template to other schools and any other organisations who are able to get involved. They will manufacture the headbands on their laser cutters and Leighton Park will collect the machined headbands.
These will then be assembled into packs of 10 bands/100 sheets and distribute to where there is need within the NHS.
At this stage Leighton Park has manufactured more than 500 headbands and benefitted the following NHS facilities and organisations for vulnerable people:
- Westwood Road Health Centre
- Loddon Vale Practice
- Melrose Surgery
- Parkside Family Practice
- Chancellor House Surgery
- Royal Berkshire Hospital
- Observatory Surgery
- Mike Wilson
- Gabriel’s Angels Elderly Care Home
- Keron Voight, Elderly Care
- Kennet Surgery
Mr Smith said: “Never happy to sit around twiddling our thumbs, (my colleague) Myles and I, ably assisted by various other resident staff, have decided to go into mass production of face shields to help local frontline staff using our laser cutter in DT.
“The initial response from nurses at the RBH and local GPs has been absolutely overwhelming – I knew they were struggling, but I had no idea how desperate they really are for this equipment.
“We had initially set ourselves the challenge of 200 shields, but it has become evident that this will be nowhere near enough, so we have gone into overdrive and plan to make 1,000 pieces.
“We have the equipment, materials and willing helpers to make this happen, but as you can imagine, this target will come at a (financial) price.
“There has been some interest already from parents of our students asking if they can help contribute towards this venture. As a result, I have set up the Go Fund Me page.”
Leighton Park is keen to hear from anyone else who may have a laser cutter and wants to get involved. To help, email [email protected] with your contact details.
And the school wants to hear from NHS organisations who need faceshields – email [email protected]
To make a donation to help cover the cost of the materials being used to create the faceshields and support this initiative please do so via the GoFundMe page at bit.ly/LP4NHS
