Face Shields Update!
We have had so many kind offers to help us keep making face masks for the NHS and Key Workers. Thank you all – we do need more resources to keep producing them – so we’ve set up a fundraising page here for anyone who can help > https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/TimWeston4
As the DT team are so incredibly busy, we ask that any contact about the shields (resources or distribution) are made to this email account please: FaceMasks@oakham.rutland.sch.uk Thank you!
Key Workers: before using this mask, please read our full disclaimer here.
Monday 6th April
To date Oakham School’s Design and Technology department have made circa 1,800 face shields and distributed them to the NHS and local Key Workers:
· Hundreds of masks have been delivered to Peterborough ICU, Leicester Royal Infirmary and Lincoln hospital. We have just been asked to supply to Kettering Hospital and are currently in the process of making some to send over to them.
· We have also provided masks for the staff at Rutland Memorial, Melton and Market Harborough hospitals where they are being put to great use.
· Masks have been delivered to numerous doctors’ surgeries across Rutland, as well as further afield in Lincolnshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire.
· Care homes and care providers have also been given masks, along with other Key Workers such as specialist schools and mental health institutions.
We’re delighted to see face shields made at Oakham getting out to those who really need them in the community. It’s great to see the masks in use across the local area.
Wednesday 1 April
The Design and Technology Department are continuing to make face shields and today alone have provided 400 face shields to Peterborough ICU, as well as making 80 more which will be distributed locally. The team plan to continue at this pace for as long as they can source resources.
“We are delighted that members of our community have come together at this time to support the making of these masks,” says Tim Weston, Head of Design and Technology at Oakham. “We are now working closely with Rutland Plastics, based in Oakham, to speed up our shield turnaround. They are injection moulding the headbands, and we will make the rest of the components. This speeds up the process and is a wonderful use of local resources – our heartfelt thanks go to Rutland Plastics.” It is particularly wonderful that this local family business, based in Oakham, is run by Old Oakhamians Steve Ayre (93) and Caroline Ayre Johnston (96) – demonstrating how the School and its community are working together during such difficult times.
“It is also brilliant that one of our school suppliers, TechSoft, who are based in Wales, has kindly provided additional materials for us to continue making these masks,” adds Tim. Other suppliers, Soden Plastics in Leicester, have supported the School by supplying materials at cost. Oakham has been thinking laterally, trying to source as much plastic as possible from across the School. This includes raiding its own Reprographics sources, with acetates normally used for binding reports now all being redeployed to make shields.
There are currently five members of the DT Department working hard to produce as many masks as possible. We have already received a steady stream of requests locally, from care homes, as well as hospitals from further afield. We would absolutely love to help as many people as we can, but our first priority will be Peterborough ICU, and the doctors’ surgeries in Rutland. We hope that we can then distribute any additional masks to local care homes if this is possible.
If any of the Oakham School community were able to support the resources needed to continue making masks at this pace, we would be delighted to receive them. They include: • 0.8mm Polypropylene sheet and 300 micron PVC clear sheets ideally A4 (or rolled is fine) • Clear PET 0.5-1mm thick • Boxes of A4 Acetates The DT team will put all of it to good use to make even more masks.
As the DT team are so incredibly busy, we ask that any contact about the shields (resources or distribution) are made to this email account please: FaceMasks@oakham.rutland.sch.uk
Thank you!
Oakham’s Design and Technology Department support NHS in fight against COVID-19 Tuesday 31 March
Oakham’s Design and Technology Department is busy supporting the NHS in their fight against Covid-19 by making face shields for front line staff.
Tim Weston, Head of DT, has been busy over the weekend setting up the School’s 3D printers to make face shields. Whilst waiting for new supplies to make the masks, Tim has been creating new CAD drawings to simultaneously reduce the amount of materials needed and to decrease the turnaround time from 3 hours to 1.45hrs per mask. Thanks to knowledge sharing with Stamford School, Oakham is also now simultaneously running its Laser Cutters too, which can make 10 in half an hour.
So far, the department has made 100 masks, with many more to come in the days ahead. The masks are going to Oakham Medical Practice, as well as to Peterborough hospital; both of which need more supplies.
Tim is keen to garner the support of any members of the Oakham School community, parents or alumni, who have access to 3D Printers or Laser Cutters and who are able to help in these efforts. One pupil, who has their own 3D printer, is already involved. Oakham will help any volunteers with files to make the shields, should they need support. The School is already speaking to Rutland Plastics to help speed up the mask making process – with the company planning to 3D print some of the parts whilst the School laser cuts the sheets and assembles them.
The Department is struggling to get hold of the amount of additional materials they need to make the quantity of masks that are demanded at this time. If any of the Oakham School community were able to support this resource need, notably 0.8mm Polypropylene sheet and 300 micron PVC clear sheets ideally A4 (or rolled is fine), the DT team will put it to good use to make even more masks.
