Stepping up Support for the Community during Coronavirus

The wider Wycombe Abbey community continues to work (and play) hard to support their communities during the Coronavirus Covid-19 outbreak.

We are delighted that the news of School’s production of PPE (personal protective equipment) for front line workers has spread. Following a news article in the last e-bulletin, Wycombe Abbey was approached by Marie Curie to help provide PPE for their nurses. Mrs Sue Buxton, Director of Science and STEM,  who has been leading this effort, organised production and supplied an initial 45 medical visors for testing among Marie Curie key workers. School also responded to recent calls from NHS Hospitals for oxygen cylinders, providing the Chemistry department and Medical Centre’s cylinders for use. Wycombe Abbey has also provided over 300 bed sheets and pillow cases for the ‘bedding to scrubs’ campaign. Our sincere thanks to Sue, and all those involved for their continued efforts to support the NHS and key front line workers looking after the most vulnerable members of our community.

Many of our pupils have been supporting their local communities in a variety of ways during the period of school closure. UIII pupils, Genevieve and Neda, have used their musical talents to keep their community smiling. Genevieve (left) played the ‘cello in a virtual quartet as part of the ‘Ode to Joy-a-thon’, organised by the National Youth Orchestra,to say thank you to the NHS playing outside to elderly and other neighbours in isolation. Neda has been helping the younger generation, playing songs online for the nursery where her mother works, and helping film their online lessons. Neda has also been hard at work sewing face masks at home (below).

 

Rose, LVI (right), dropped her CV into local pharmacies, offering to help voluntarily. Since March, Rose has been delivering and collecting medication and prescriptions on her bike around her local neighbourhood in London.

Maddie, UV (below left), and Ahana, LIV (below right), have been involved in fundraising. Maddie launched an effort in support of TheirWorld.org, helping the 1.5 billion children around the world prevented from attending school during the outbreak of Covid-19. Via Instagram, Maddie has rallied as many people as possible to cover 10,200 km from London to Boston between 13 April and 12 May. At the time of writing, £1010 has been raised, with a week to go. The programme can be found on LondontoBoston_  on Instagram and on JustGiving. Ahana and her brother took part in a 21 km triathlon on 2 May. They swam, cycled and ran, inspired to help by HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s initiative to ensure ‘No one will starve in the UAE’. You can support Ahana’s fundraiser to provide meals for those affected by Coronavirus Covid-19 in the UAE here .

Keep up the great work, girls!

Having already achieved their goal of travelling the length of the UK, the Wycombe Abbey Sports department have organised a 47,500 km ‘Around the World’ trip to visit our pupils in their home countries. The virtual trip involves staff members contributing to the mileage through their daily exercise, with 38 staff members currently on-board. The staff team arrived in Berlin after 2226 km on Day 10 of their challenge. Thank you to Mrs Sophie Bryett-Windle, Director of Sport, and Mrs Fiona Gee, Assistant Director of Sport, for organising the activity. If you would like to keep up with their journey, and find out when they will virtually visit your country, follow @wycombeabbeyPE on Twitter.

We would like to congratulate all our pupils, staff and wider Wycombe Abbey community members who have been supporting their local communities during this extraordinary time and we are immensely proud of their efforts. If you would like to send in a story and photograph of how you have been helping to support your community please email[email protected].