TEACHERS at Liskeard School and Community College have turned their workshop into a manufacturing facility to make protective face visors for local health workers.

Head of Technology Anne Yoxall and her team Tom Hurdwell, Cath Ward and Claire Naysmith began producing the equipment two weeks ago.

In just a few days they had made 100 visors, and these have been distributed to community nurses in Liskeard and Callington, Tavistock Hospital, Liskeard Ambulance Station, Kernow House Care Centre, Morley Tamblyn Lodge, and several residential care homes in the area.

Requests came in thick and fast and the four have now provided visors to more care homes and local businesses. They’ve even had a request from the Coventry Hospital, featured on the BBC’s Panorama programme.

‘The community nurses were absolutely delighted – they have each got one of their own,’ said Anne.

’They said the visors are a better quality than ones they could have obtained, and they were having difficulty getting them anyway. They’d had poor quality ones which they’d had to throw away.

‘Another health worker I spoke to sent me a photo of a visor they had basically adapted out of a plastic bag with drawstrings. They were very keen to have some of our visors.’

The materials for the initial run of 100 were funded by £500 from the school itself; local people and Liskeard Town Council have donated generously so that more can be ordered.

‘I searched online for a design and found one on a Canadian website which I was given permission to use,’ Anne explained.

‘It had a few problems, and we adapted it so it was much more workable.’

After Claire and Cath helped to create initial prototypes using handtools, drillpress and bandsaw in the workshop, Anne and Tom set about using CAD/CAM (computer aided design/manufacture) to make a visor that could be produced at speed using a laser cutter.

The team have come up with three different designs. The masks have a sturdy plastic headband, with a thin, clear polystyrene visor that clips easily on and off, to facilitate cleaning and disinfecting.

Liskeard is one of seven schools in Cornwall whose workshops have been busy making protective equipment.

The schools join businesses and volunteers in stepping into the breach of a widespread shortage of PPE.

Cornwall Council has repeatedly asked Government for more supplies for frontline workers in the county.

Cabinet member for Adults, Rob Rotchell, said on Tuesday: ‘The government really need to get a grip of this problem. It’s all very well for our local MPs to claim that Treliske is fully stocked with PPE. Of course, PPE for hospitals is vital, but care homes are also on the front line of the coronavirus pandemic and have become the forgotten front in the war against the virus.’