WHS' RESPONSE TO THE PANDEMIC

FACING UP

As the shortage of PPE became apparent during the early weeks of the first lock down, Head of Design and Technology Martin Scouse had the inspired idea of creating face shields using the laser cutter lent to School by Oakham School. With the help of the nimble fingered McGowan family, the team set to work isolating separately in the adjacent DT and Art rooms. In total, 735 face shields were made and delivered to grateful recipients at Milton Keynes Accident & Emergency and intensive care, Caroline Cares for You in Brackley, A2 Dominion Housing Group in Oxford, Katharine House Hospice in Adderbury, Deddington Pharmacy, Juniper House Care Home, Brackley Fields Country House Care Home, Springfield Surgery, Washington House Surgery and Health Centre all in Brackley, Chacombe Park

Left: Freddie (Year 8) hard at work. Martin Scouse (above left), Shelley and Craig Irvine (above), Suzanne Gray (below) and her son Daniel (below right).

Care Home, Southerndown Nursing Home in Chipping Norton, the Bridge House Medical Centre in Stratford, three surgeries in Aylesbury, the John Radcliffe Hospital, Helen & Douglas House in Oxford, Wardington House, The Brook Health Centre in Towcester, Silson Surgery in Silverstone, the Oxon County temporary mortuary at Heyford Air Base, the Brodie Centre at the Horton Hospital in Banbury, the Cropredy Surgery and the Green Pastures Christian Care Home in Banbury. Distribution was secured with the help of Suzanne Gray (whose son Dan is an A&E nurse at Milton Keynes Hospital), Craig Irvine and Warren Silman. Messages of thank you came from many of the recipients with photos showing the WHS face shields being worn.

Alumna Freddie Palmer (2020) continued the campaign, making laundry bags for NHS staffs’ scrubs and uniforms.

SISTER WENDY RETURNED TO THE COVID WARDS

As seen on the front cover of House, artist and parent Lou Dunipace painted Sister Wendy Bull as part of an international pledge by artists to paint frontline heroes. Sister Wendy worked at the John Radcliffe Hospital during the first lockdown on 10 different wards all of which had covid patients. Her days were long, tiring and often upsetting but we know that Sister Wendy's care, expertise and smiling face would have helped many.

Sister Wendy completed her nursing degree in Bristol, in 1989 and then worked in a variety of hospitals as a staff nurse including trauma at the Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton, general medicine and haematology at Basingstoke Hospital and general surgery at Gloucester Park Hospital. After marrying in 1994, she did research and clinical trials for two years, and then worked as a Practice Nurse at Langford Medical Practice in Bicester for 14 years.

For the last couple of years as a Practice Nurse, Sister Wendy worked part time at her local Primary School in Charlbury as a Teaching Assistant. She loved it so much that she decided to combine her two loves and start working as a School Nurse. In 2011, she became a staff nurse with the school nurse team in Oxford,

Sister Wendy holding the Lou Dunipace painting.

covering some of the city’s most deprived areas. She completed her specialist school nurse qualification in 2012 at Oxford Brooke’s University, followed by a one year Post Graduate Diploma in Specialist Community Public Health Nursing (School Nursing). After graduating, she worked in South Oxfordshire covering Thame and the Chipping Norton School. Sister Wendy started her role at Winchester House in February 2017 and has played an integral role in the continued safety of the School community during the pandemic. We are very lucky to have her as our School Nurse.

AYRTON & ELIOT’S 12 HOUR ROW FOR 'YOUNG MINDS'

During Mental Health Week in May 2020, alumni and brothers, Ayrton (2013) and Eliot (2015) Patel, completed a 12 hour row on rowing machines for the mental health charity Young Minds, and raised over £2,250. Although they experienced cramps, fatigue and hunger, they both said they felt an enormous sense of achievement knowing that the money would help young people struggling with their mental health. The event was live streamed throughout, which enabled the WHS community to chart their progress.

CONNECTFORCE

During the first lock down, alumna Claudia Wace (2010) co-founded the charitable social initiative Connectforce which reconnected the UK’s older generation with their families by donating video-calling technology to the most in-need of the UK’s 2,750 care homes. Fellow alumna, Alicia Fellowes (2010) volunteered and, together with a network of UK wide volunteers in London, Newport, Greater Manchester and the Midlands, Connectforce distributed 316 video-calling devices to the most in need care homes. This enabled over 8,000 residents to make digital connections.

The team piloted Connectforce Companions in October as the charity’s virtual befriending initiative. The scheme connects care home residents with a ‘virtual’ volunteer companion who has been personally matched to the individual and has a background in the performing arts. In February, the second phase of the initiative began where Connectforce hoped to pair 50 residents with companions. Claudia Wace comments,

Left: Alicia Fellowes sending out the ConnectForce message.

“This crisis has shone a real light on the reality of loneliness and social isolation in our society. Technology to facilitate communication has been a life saver for many, but sadly many have no one to connect to even if they do have access. On the other side of this, the arts sector has not been adequately recognised or supported in its role in its community. ‘Companions’ is a push to merge two problems to allow for both to help each other. We want to call actors, performers and musicians to arms, to support our elderly population over the most difficult of months with our virtual 8 week befriending scheme.”

CORONA ACTS OF KINDNESS

When Housian Geoff Clayton (1943) (pictured below, far left) emailed Emma McGowan on 25th March 2020 to ask if there was a Housian living near him in Shaftesbury that could help him with shopping during the pandemic, the WHS bush telegraph set to work. Housian Philip Ashby (1968) contacted his PA Gina Dent who lived two miles away and was only too pleased to help.

FOOD4HEROES

During summer half term 2020, alumnus Jonah Watkins (2020) (above) volunteered at Althorpe House for the charity Food4Heroes, helping prepare food for the NHS staff at Northampton General Hospital. Jonah spent 4.5 hours in the kitchens working alongside Danny the Chef, creating some tasty dishes.

FORGE COFFEE IN LOCKDOWN

By Housian Rupert Rowling (2000)

The sudden imposition of lockdown back in March 2020 immediately left us fearing how Forge Coffee would ride out this period of uncertainty, and the pulling of the drawbridge on our revenue stream. As a nascent business, with our Culworth site opening in August 2018 and Evenley a year later, we were still overcoming teething issues and growing our customer base. For Evenley, the timing was particularly unfortunate as our efforts to reinstate the Post Office had only just borne fruit with the reopening of this vital community service just a fortnight earlier.

We quickly pivoted to transform our coffee shops to offer a weekly food collection service from our local suppliers. We’re proud of the role both Forge Coffee sites play as the hub of their respective communities and this offering seemed a natural way in which we could help, at a time when vulnerable people were being told to isolate, and there were queues around the block at supermarkets.

Nonetheless, we were still overwhelmed with the popularity of the service. My initial intention of noting people’s orders down on a Word document proved woefully inadequate with over 100 people sending in their requests. After the first week, an upgrade to a slightly more professional Excel spreadsheet helped manage the orders flooding in for sourdough, cinnamon swirls, eggs, cheese, milk, yoghurts and fruit and veg boxes. Such was the demand, I named my contact list to keep people informed about the weekly tweaks to the service as “Forge Ocado” as the range of options grew to include flowers, asparagus and boxes of brownies.

Top: Forge Coffee in Evenley. Above and top left: Forge Coffee in Culworth. Bottom left: One of the Forge food boxes packed and ready.

Inevitably, there was the odd mistake or forgotten order along the way, but people were so grateful to have the service that any hiccup was always dealt with cheerily. The one-hour weekly collection slot, combined with social distancing measures, resulted in queues down the street in Culworth and across the village green in Evenley, but again, the fine weather we enjoyed during the first lockdown (plus the lack of anything else to do) meant people patiently waited their turn. Indeed, some people looked forward to the weekly collection as it was their only physical human interaction and a pleasant escape from Zoom.

Thankfully, both Forge Coffees were able to reopen in early July and the positive sentiment we had built up by adapting to help our community thankfully translated into a bumper summer with people, and particularly cyclists, coming from miles around to get their daily or weekly caffeine fix. Even after we were fully open, the food collection service continued throughout the summer, albeit on lower volumes, as the habits formed during the lockdown proved enduring.

As I write this we are back in lockdown again, number 3. The situation feels different this time, with less demand for the food collection service

Below: Socially distanced cyclists enjoying a mid-ride coffee during the 2020 summer when lockdown restrictions were eased.

PANDEMICS ARE NOT ALL BAD NEWS

Housian Richard Venables (1960) contacted Emma McGowan during the first lockdown to inform her that WHS was closed in 1957 during the Asian flu outbreak. It coincided with the playing of the 12th Ryder Cup near his parents’ home at Lindrick, near Worksop, on 4-5 October. Richard had his picture taken getting golfer Christy O’Connor’s autograph. The GB team, led by Captain Dai Rees, beat the US team by a score of 7.5 to 4.5 points and won the Ryder Cup for the first time since 1933. He was hooked, and has played golf that proved a lifeline back in the spring. But the fact that Forge Coffee was able to ride out and indeed grow during such a difficult time gives us the confidence to know we’ll be there to serve the region’s best coffee to our loyal following as soon as circumstances allow.

ever since – a life changing moment! Richard still has the article from the Sheffield Telegraph featuring the above photo! H