Ealing: St Benedict's School makes PPE for frontline NHS workers

Staff at Georgian House Care Home Ealing, wearing St Benedict's PPE

Staff and students at St Benedict's School in Ealing, west London have made over 1,000 protective visors for frontline NHS staff, carers and key workers, in London and beyond.

St Benedict's DT teacher Mauricio Mendes, assisted by a team of sixth form volunteers, has been producing and distributing this essential PPE to hospitals, care homes and doctors' surgeries since mid-March.

The school has received many requests for the visors, from hospitals, care homes and surgeries in west London, including West Middlesex University Hospital, Georgian House Nursing Home and Florence Road Surgery, Ealing. The visors have also been distributed further afield, to care homes in Hertfordshire, Warwickshire and even North Wales.

In addition to providing PPE, St Benedict's also donated its science lab protective equipment, such as goggles, gloves and sanitisers to local hospitals.

"I have designed the visor to be made of one whole strip of polypropylene that goes around the head and holds a protective shield made of clear acetate", said Mauricio. "We have a fair amount of polypropylene in the Art and Design department, for our school projects, and we had a few dozen acetate sheets. After two days we had used all the acetate available in school, having produced nearly 150 visors. After that, St Benedict's staff came together to donate more acetate and, over the Easter weekend we received enough acetate sheets to produce almost 2000 visors and counting."

Andrew Johnson, Headmaster of St Benedict's, said: "I am very pleased that we have been able to make a contribution, in support of the courageous work being done by NHS and care workers."

Read more about St Benedict's here: www.stbenedicts.org.uk/