Heroes come in many shapes and sizes, the current Covid-19 situation has highlighted that many of those everyday heroes live amongst us all the time.
Across the school this week we asked some of our students to nominate their heroes as part of our community thank you to those working at the very front line of the crisis.
We were delighted with the overwhelming response, a selection of which is shown below. Nominations ranged from NHS workers to fire men, through to cousins that help with homework so parents can work from home and tilers who have volunteered to clean NHS wards, our thanks go out to each and every one of you.
We have also added some special mentions to those within our staffing and support community who are playing a particular role at this time.
“My uncle Richard was a tiler for over 30 years. However, in the last month he has given up tiling to join the housekeeping team at the University Hospital Wales.
He is currently working on the COVID-19 ward – deep cleaning all the equipment and assisting to stop the spread of this horrible virus. It makes me proud that he has stepped up to help the country. He is a modern-day Covid-19 hero.” By Eva, Year 8
“My Key worker is my uncle Robbie, he is a fire man but due to the circumstances, he has to do extra training in case he has to help the paramedics by driving the ambulances.
One new aspect for him is that when they go on calls they have to wear loads of protection. He also has less fire-related calls because there are fewer cars on the road and fewer people can go out and have bonfires and set forest fires even if it is by accident. There have been really kind people sending him and his team gift baskets to say thank you.”
From Nursery, Prep, through to Senior and our IB Sixth Form we have to say an enormous thank you to all our teaching staff. Each and every one has worked tirelessly in delivering, a market leading online offering since Day 1 of school closures, including foregoing a week of their Easter Holidays to further increase the amount of support on offer and for some, such as our Nursery Manager, Mrs Dwyer and Hannah coming into school to provide continual support for our key worker children.
An extra special thank you has to also be made to Ms Janette who has remained in lockdown with our international boarders who have been unable to return home. Her sacrifice in not returning home to her family and keeping our own Westbourne family safe is exceptional. To read more about boarding house life in lockdown click here.
Rob for many years has supported Westbourne with all our IT needs, as a contractor. At the beginning of February he decided to make a life-changing decision and become an Emergency Medical Dispatcher. After two months training, Rob went live as a fully-fledged EMD at the end of March and has been at the heart of the Covid response ever since. Rob starts back tonight on his first night shift having recovered from catching Covid-19 himself.
Rob explained to us earlier what he now does in his role: ‘An EMD provides life-saving interventions on 999 calls, such as using a defibrillator, providing CPR, stopping serious bleeding etc. And of course, we send the ambulance to you and often stay on the line with patients or their loved ones to provide support, reassurance and to monitor their condition and provide further interventions if their condition worsens before the crew arrives.”
Beyond the Boarding House, a percentage of our Westbourne boarding students stay with a host family. Host families across the Vale of Glamorgan have been welcoming Westbourne students for over a decade and are a core part of our community.
During this situation we have an enormous debt of gratitude to two families, led by Home Stay Parent Richard and HomeStay Parent Clare, each family has been able to continue to host their Home Stay students who have been unable to return home, from all of us at Westbourne, thank you!
