Claires Court school is supporting the community with a number of initiatives during the outbreak of Covid-19.
Head of sailing swaps life jackets for life saving
The school’s head of sailing and outdoor education, Paul Robson, is putting on his volunteer cap as a Community First Responder (CFR) during the outbreak of Covid-19.
In the CFR role, Paul supports the ambulance service and is on-duty to respond to life-threatening 999 calls in the local community including cardiac arrest, heart attack, breathing difficulties, stroke, and seizures. The aim is to start providing life-saving medical treatment shortly before an ambulance arrives. Calls can also include non-injury falls and concerns for welfare where many patients can be discharged by a clinician over the phone with the CFR support, saving the need for a further ambulance resource to attend.
Paul commented: “Alongside working for Claires Court I volunteer as a Community First Responder for South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS), which is something I’ve done for over three years.
“As all schools are closed to help the government’s strategy to slow down the spread of Covid-19, Claires Court is supporting me to give more voluntary hours during this time of need for the community. We want to help in any way possible for our families, key workers and the wider community. Not only is the school continuing with online education and support for pupils and their families, this volunteering role is additional help to the community.”
The purpose of the CFR scheme is to get someone on-scene quickly from the local community who is able to start providing any immediate life saving care, which is proven to increase the chances of survival. CFRs are funded by the South Central Ambulance Charity to be able to provide the support to SCAS.
For more information about SCAS visit
www.scas.nhs.uk/our-services/community-and-co-responders/ Nursing support for NHS services
Two of the school’s qualified on site nurses, Kerry Duff and Jane Webster, are also volunteering or have applied to be on the NHS standby register to add support to vital medical services if they become overloaded.
Kerry Duff, nurse at Claires Court Juniors Boys school said: “As well as working at Claires Court, I also work in the urgent-care care centre at St Mark’s hospital as an emergency nurse practitioner, and Claires Court is enabling me to offer more hours during the Covid-19 crisis.
“My patients range from small children to the elderly with any number of minor injuries and illnesses. I assess and treat them according to their condition. They may need an x-ray for a wrist or ankle injury, sutures for cuts or antibiotics for an infection. It is a vital service to the local community - if I can treat the patients in our local hospital, it means they don’t need to travel to a main A&E department, hopefully reducing some of the load on the acute services.”
Essential protective equipment donated to local surgeries
Claires Court’s science department has donated protective equipment, normally used in the lab, to local surgeries.
Unused protective glasses and/or gloves were delivered to Rosemead surgery, Ray Park Avenue, Herewards House Care Home, also on Ray Park Avenue, Claremont surgery in Maidenhead, and Marlow Medical Group, following their appeal on Facebook.
Academic Principal at Claires Court, James Wilding, is delighted to acknowledge and support his staff in these volunteering roles: “We're pleased to support our community during this difficult time in a variety of different ways with our skilled staff and our resources to assist in providing medical care and help for our local surgeries and care homes.”
Claires Court is an independent day school in Maidenhead for boys and girls aged three to 18 year olds. For more information and to book an open day visit, go to
www.clairescourt.com.
