Coronavirus: Teachers make face shields for NHS staff

Design and technology teachers are making face shields to help protect NHS workers from coronavirus.

Stuart Sweetman, of King Henry VIII School, Coventry, said "a growing number" of teachers were following a template shared on social media.

The head of DT, who has helped make 140 shields since Saturday, said: "They are going out as fast as we can make them."

Some hospital staff say they lack basic protective gear, but the government says it is working to protect them.

Mr Sweetman and two other DT staff are making the masks inside the closed school and said they were working to keep facilities as sterile as possible.

Using laser cutters, they were able to produce about "one shield a minute" compared with 3D printers which were slower, he said.

"We are just just doing what we can while they are needed," he said.

The shields made at King Henry on Saturday have gone to the George Eliot Hospital, in Nuneaton, and also to a care home.

The teachers in Coventry followed a design for a "simple laser cut face visor for use as personal protective equipment (PPE)" which was put out by Nottingham firm Kitronik. Other schools and businesses in the city are responding to their plea for materials.

Meanwhile, staff at Stamford School in Lincolnshire have made and donated 100 visors to the intensive care unit at Peterborough City Hospital and had further orders, including from the Royal Papworth Hospital, Cambridge, and GP surgeries.

Head of DT Steve Newton said they were "happy to support the NHS with anything we can do".