Another West End school has been doing its bit to help during the COVID-19 crisis.
Staff at Jordanhill Hill School have made more than 2,500 protective visors for frontline workers.
Principal teacher in design and technology Paul Jennings began the production line during the Easter break.
He has since rallied a team of 20 colleagues to turn out PPE using the school’s workshops.
The finished PPE is being distributed by the ViseUp campaign started by Kelvinside Academy and West End music and arts venue SWG3.
Paul said it had been a team effort that everybody could be proud of.
“I got clearance school to access the Jordanhill School building during the Easter holidays.
'Challenging'
“I went in for a few days, and slightly lost track of how many days I spent there - something like six days.
“At that point I was cutting acrylic and working on an open-source design through inventibles.com.
“I made something like 530 over that six days.
"But I discovered that the logistics of actually trying to ship stuff was going to be quite challenging.
"That's when I got in touch with David Miller at Kelvinside Academy."
Jordanhill has been collaborating with other Glasgow schools on the best design and production methods.
St Luke's School out in Barrhead and two other schools came up with an effective template.
Paul said: "It's an interlocking design that dramatically reduced waste.
"It allowed us to scale up from making 19 visors per sheet of acrylic up to 54 per sheet.
Lockdown
"We have managed to up our volume from 100 a day over time to about 500 a day."
Paul says the lockdown experience has shown the value of people coming together to make products locally.
It is an idea that countries such as Denmark have followed.
"I was put in touch with the Danish head of these 'maker spaces' a little while ago.
"The Danish angle was helpful in getting me equipped with the expectations about what it would be like to work at the level we have been for the last few weeks."
After the Easter break, Paul has recruited a team of school volunteers to keep production going at the same time as staff attend to remote learning for pupils in lockdown.
Paul said: "At points we've felt slightly overwhelmed but we've managed to take it in our stride now.
"Going back to school you've got the challenges of needing to digitally engage with your classes.
"Nevertheless there is now a sizeable staff team involved of around 20 able to come in and do a shift of half day and keep things happening."
- A number of other schools across Scotland are supporting the efforts by producing PPE on their own campuses, including Larbert High School, St Luke’s Barrhead, Caldervale High, Denny High School, Graeme High School and Knox Academy. To donate please visit the Go Fund Me page. For more information please visit www.kelvinside.org
