Sedgefield Community College, in County Durham, is supporting the local community by making Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).
Students and staff began manufacturing PPE in March and have so far donated over 800 face shields to local and regional hospitals, GP surgeries, critical care units, community care departments and, care homes. The requests are still coming in and they hope to break the 1,000 mark this week.
Huw Gullett, Head of Technology and Engineering, initially got the idea to produce PPE face shields after talking to the local NHS. Their need for eye protection for key workers led the College to donate their own eye protection from the Science and D&T departments.
Huw developed a design for easily recyclable PPE that could be manufactured using the school’s laser cutter and 3D printers. Once his design was signed off by County Durham and Darlington NHS Health Care Trust, he got to work and has been manufacturing them ever since. When keyworker children saw what he was doing, they wanted to get involved too.
Huw commented, “The Year 9 and 10 students are completing Cambridge Nationals Engineering Design and they really enjoy the course. I also really enjoy teaching the course. The production line and batch production of face shields has been a really good example of the different stages required, quality control and health & safety. I’m planning to run it again with the students as a taught unit.”
Congratulations to Huw and the students at Sedgefield Community College for helping to provide their community with vital equipment.
If you have any stories from your school or college, we’d love to hear them and to share your news. To do this, please let us know by emailing ocrmarketing.campaigns@ocr.org.uk.
Photo: Sedgefield Community College student on the key worker program wearing a prototype face shields manufactured at the school.
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