Members of the Design Technology department at Castle School in Taunton are busy producing visors for care staff to help during the coronavirus emergency.

The school, which has linked up with other schools including Court Fields in Wellington, is producing the visors for Somerset Care.

Custom Plastics in Wellington is helping with the supply of raw materials.

Protective Personal Equipment (PPE) is at a premium during the coronavirus emergency so Castle Design and Technology technician Pat Keates was inspired to use equipment that was lying idle to start a production line.

Pat said: “The idea came from our Design and Technology teacher Sonia Fishlock, who found a link on a teachers’ forum about making face shields. Sonia got in touch to tell me about it and less than an hour later I was contacted by my son Chris Keates, who works at Somerset Care.

“Chris had seen something similar and asked if we could help, so Sonia and I decided that we would attempt to make a prototype and go from there. We found a CAD file online, which we developed to make a prototype.

“Somerset Care were happy with what they saw, so we produced as many as we could in the time available – we’re now able to make between 120 and 140 of these a day.

“Having other schools on board has really made a huge difference and we are hoping to be up to 300-plus a day.”

Andrew Needham, operations director at Somerset Care, said: “There is huge demand for this product among all care providers in Somerset, and innovative solutions like this are crucial to ensure we keep people safe.”