A SCHOOL community is engineering a safer future for frontline workers by making essential protective equipment for the fight against coronavirus.
Staff in the engineering department at Bede Academy, Blyth, mobilised the children of key workers being taught in school to make visors and scrubs bags for the NHS.
Northumbrian Water donated acetate and polypropylene sheets which were laser cut and assembled into hundreds of safety visors for health care workers.
Staff and students also have plans to produce an additional 200 visors to be donated to the central hub at Blyth Sports Centre from where it will be distributed to those in need.
So far the vital kit has been sent to local pharmacies, a Bedlington GP and 100 have been sent to the RVI children cancer ward in Newcastle, with another 100 each going to Blyth District Nurses and HMP Northumberland.
Students also wrote moving thank you messages for the recipients expressing their heartfelt gratitude to frontline medics, nurses, pharmacists and care workers as well as the prison service.
The textiles team and students have been collecting unwanted fabric from the local community and turning them into scrubs bags for doctors and nurses. Used to hold contaminated scrubs which are then washed at a high temperature, the bags can help to contain any possible spread of the virus.
Bede Academy Principal Andrew Thelwell said: “Our work in support of the national and local effort has been welcomed by businesses, residents, parents and the community, and the passion and commitment of our students and staff has been fantastic to see.
“They most certainly have demonstrated their compassion for others and shown an incredible sense of honourable purpose. We shall continue our work to produce as many items of PPE as possible and to support our key workers in the fight against coronavirus.”