Park Community School key worker children make protective shields which ‘literally could save family members' lives’
KEY worker children at a Havant school could literally be saving their parents’ lives after making protective face shields as part of their design and technology lessons.
Staff at Park Community School decided to get pupils involved in the production process after critical worker children returned after the Easter break. Since then, around 20 pupils, a number of whom have parents in the NHS, have been attaching the laser-cut shields to headbands before washing the visors in a protective disinfectant coating.
After making his first batch of masks, Year 9 student, Trent Blake, 13, said: ‘I'm really grateful to the school for giving me this opportunity and proud to be helping to stop the spread of the coronavirus.’
Year 8 pupil, Keyley Donohue, 12, added: ‘It was good to make some face shields and know they were going to be given to people in care homes to help them stay safe.’
For design and technology teachers, Andy Green and Daniel Payne, the children have shown ‘great enthusiasm on their assembly line’ to produce almost 200 shields.
Daniel said: ‘These children could literally be making something which could potentially save a family member’s life. I’m in school every Monday and there was one boy who a week later was still so proud and excited that what he had done could help protect peoples’ safety.’
Andy added: ‘Many of the children in school have family members either working in the NHS or in the care sector and so they’ve a natural understanding as to the importance of the initiative. They’re even competing to see who can make the most masks in one session.
‘Hopefully, when this is all over, as a school we can look back and say we did our bit.’
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The face shields have been distributed to local surgeries and care providers including the disability charity, Mencap, in Havant.
Andy added: ‘When I dropped the shields off at Springfield Nursing Home in Emsworth the lady who I handed them over to was in tears. I have even dropped off six face shields at the mortuary at Queen Alexandra Hospital. I was surprised at the request as I thought they would be first on the list for protection.’
