Protecting the Protectors

The Shiplake College community is doing all that it can to support the response to the national COVID-19 crisis.

A number of staff and pupils have signed up to the NHS Volunteer Responder programme and have been delivering prescriptions and 'reporting for duty' accordingly. Others have been active members of locally-organised support groups, packing up food-boxes, collecting prescriptions or shopping for vulnerable or elderly people who are required to stay at home and shield themselves.

The College has registered with the NHS and the government-organised scheme, stating that it would be willing to open boarding houses for keyworkers or others on the frontline helping with the response. Should the request come in we will be ready to welcome users immediately.

On Friday 17 April, the School Chaplain, Revd Chris Briggs visited the Churches in Reading Drop-In Centre (CIRDIC). He delivered a haul of food items, including eggs, bacon, beans and bread rolls, donated mainly by the staff who live on site. These items were gratefully received and will be used for preparing lunches for the homeless and other vulnerable people.

One of the most significant ways that the College is helping make a difference is the work taking place within the DT Department. Face shields have been in production for over a week and so far 600 have been produced. Overseen by the DT staff, along with a rota of volunteers, they are helping supply local healthcare services and care homes with protection, which these key workers desperately need.

In addition to 150 face shields, four boxes of disposable aprons and five boxes of disposable gloves from the School's medical and cleaning supplies were donated to the ICU at the Royal Berkshire Hospital, where Mr Crisford's wife is a Senior Sister. She sent a photo of the items being used saying "On behalf of all who work in Intensive Care at The Royal Berkshire Hospital we wanted to thank Shiplake College for the donations of PPE. All the staff are very grateful and it has made  a real difference in keeping us safe at this difficult time."

As well as the RBH, boxes of face shields have also been delivered to General Practices in Cookham, Maidenhead and Wheatley and eight care homes in Shiplake and Henley and further afield. When delivering to care homes in Bracknell and Wokingham, Mrs Ianthe King reported that at both places the person who opened the door had tears in their eyes as they said thank you.

Please contact Mrs Green at [email protected] if you would like to request a delivery of face shields (normally in boxes of 50). Thank you to The Henley Box Shop for providing the new and clean storage boxes for delivery at a heavily discounted price.

(Disclaimer: the face shields are produced in a clean but non-sterile environment where social distancing is being observed for those not in households; all volunteers certify that they feel well and are not displaying any COVID-19 symptoms; the design does not meet strict British Standards guidance.)

Face Shields for Frontline Workers Campaign

We have been asked a number of times whether we are accepting donations to help us with the production of face shields and we recently received a generous contribution of £500. This has helped kick-start a small campaign with a target to raise £1,000 so that we can place further orders for materials to cover the cost of producing more face shields for as long as there is still a need. 

Any contributions would be gratefully received to enable us to continue supporting the NHS and any other heroes who are working in environments that put them at increased risk of coming into contact with this invisible killer.

Donate to the Face Shields for Frontline Workers Campaign

(Please note that the College is also one of 22 partner schools that are working with Leighton Park School and its amazing project that has so far produced over 10,000 face shields. Their design requires the use of a laser cutter and the College's one unfortunately stopped working soon after production. We are awaiting the delivery of a new part and will resume collaboration with Leighton Park at the earliest opportunity, but it is not clear how long this will take to arrive. In the meantime, the College is producing shields manually using our own design, which therefore requires sourcing and financing our own materials.)

Flickr album: Protecting the Protectors | Height: auto | Theme: Default