Staff from Maidenhead's Claires Court School are putting their time to good use while it is closed - by sharing their medical skills with the community during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Paul Robson, is head of sailing at the school in College Avenue.

In his role as a Community First Responder for South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS) , he will be 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.

It will not be a new experience for Paul who has been a volunteer for three years.

He said: “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.”

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.

“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.”

Claires Court’s science department has donated protective equipment including protective glasses and/or gloves normally used in the lab, to local surgeries.