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Turves Green becomes academy
Turves Green Girls’ School will be joining a myriad of other schools as part of the King Edward VI Academy Trust. From September, Turves
Green will officially join the nine existing King Edward VI Academies, becoming King Edward VI Northfield School for Girls. The school’s conversion to an academy has received approval from the West Midlands Headteacher Board. Grace Cousens, associate
director of Educational Support and Growth at the Foundation Office, said: “We are thrilled to be welcoming another comprehensive school into our ‘family’ to join us on our mission to make Birmingham the best place to be educated in the UK. “Turves Green Girls’ is an
excellent school providing fantastic support and achieving strong results. “In joining the King Edward
VI Academy Trust, the school will build on its strengths, continuing to meet the needs of the community and support all children regardless of ability.”
Health and wellbeing provider BHSF has delivered 3,500 return to work medical assessments in the last six months of 2020, through a dedicated occupational health team remotely consulting more than 16,000 clients. BHSF say that the service has
ensured that businesses operating across these critical segments of the economy have been able to get their employees back to work following Covid-related absences. Fiona McGill, senior clinician at
BHSF, said: “In a typical year, our team of practitioners will be out on the road delivering health assessments and screening across a variety of workplace settings. “Clearly all this came to an
abrupt end in such an extraordinary year, but despite a significant reduction in active workforces, the need to get employees safely back to work and increasingly back out on the road, became critical.” Fiona added that BHSF’s
occupational health team has had to make assessments at speed, in order to keep industries, such as logistics, manufacturing and engineering, moving during the pandemic. She explained: “Contact-free
delivery has been vital to so many Trust in STEM projects
A staggering £25m has been contributed to science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) projects by The Millennium Point Charitable Trust over the past six years. The charity donates and invests
in STEM-related organisations, projects and initiatives that benefit Birmingham and the wider region. All of the commercial activity
that takes place in the landmark building and multi-award-winning conference and events venue feeds back into the charity and projects it supports. Despite a year rocked by Covid-
19, the trust has amassed multi- million pound donations in continued support for the region’s STEM sector, which has included funding more than 40 projects in the form of small grants to fund STEM-related projects in the region, working with Birmingham City
46CHAMBERLINK February 2021
University’s Faculty of Computing, Engineering and The Built Environment to offer a free undergraduate degree through the Millennium Point Scholarship, an annual donation to ThinkTank Science Museum and rent reductions for STEM tenants Abbie Vlahakis, chief executive
of Millennium Point, said: “This year has highlighted the significant role STEM plays in the world today, from medical breakthroughs to technology that keeps us all connected. We’re immensely proud of the quality and breadth of STEM-related projects that the Millennium Point Charitable Trust has been able to support. “The Trust has made a significant
difference in the region and, particularly with projects such as our scholarship, it’s encouraging to see young people taking a real interest in STEM as a future career.”
Contact: Henrietta Brealey T: 0121 274 3266
Helping staff back to work
business sectors, so that is exactly what we have mirrored with our screening services this year, helping ensure continuity at a time when so much has been uncertain.
‘Contact-free delivery has been vital’
“The remote service has been
our way of being responsive to specific constraints, but significantly it has also enhanced the overall speed and quality of the support that we’ve been able to offer. “The benefits of ensuring that an
individual dealing with intense anxiety can be assessed and managed quickly are clear. Thanks to our new remote service, we can often do this in the space of just a few days.” BHSF occupational health
provides a range of occupational health support services including new-starter health screenings, role specific medicals, immunisations and vaccinations, health surveillance and sickness absence
referrals.It also offers additional services, including ergonomic, physiotherapy and mental health support.
New Covid test designed
A rapid Covid test producing accurate results in under five minutes has been developed by University of Birmingham researchers. The method for the test is
described in a preprint paper, which is yet to be peer-reviewed by scientists, published in MedRxiv, where the researchers also demonstrate the rapidity and sensitivity of their method. Professor Tim Dafforn from the
University’s School of Biosciences, explained: “We have designed a new method for testing that combines the ease of use and speed of lateral flow testing with the inherent sensitivity of an RNA test. “It features reagents that can
be used in existing point of care devices and meets the need for
testing in high throughput, near- patient, settings where people may be waiting in line for their results.” Researchers are calling the new
method Reverse Transcriptase Free EXPAR (RTF-EXPAR) testing. University of Birmingham
Enterprise has filed a patent application covering the method and its use in diagnostic equipment, and is now seeking to license the patent for rapid product development. The method has been
developed to cut waiting times for Covid-19 testing. Researchers say that the
technique could be applied to any RNA-based infectious agent or disease biomarker including
cancer.
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