Dear parents and carers,

School will close for the Christmas holiday on Friday 18^th December at 1:30 (1:20 for Year 5 and 6 children) and reopen on Monday 4^th January 2021.

If your child is eligible for free schools meals and you have registered with Oldham Council you will have received a £30 voucher through text message today.  If you have not received the text message, please contact the school.

If you feel that you may be eligible for free school meals, please contact the school office and they will help fill in the forms.

During this time, we need to remember to keep following the government guidelines and stay safe.

What to do if your child tests positive?

If your child tests positive between Saturday 19^th December and Thursday 24^th December can you please let school know immediately.  

You can contact school in the following ways:

By clicking the link to the COVID information page and filling in the form:

https://www.stthomaswernethprimary.co.uk/covid-form/

Or you can leave a message on the school Facebook page:

@stthomaswerneth

Both of these will be checked daily, and you will be contacted during the day by a member of school staff.

You can phone school on the normal number : 0161 6330539 between the hours of 10:00-2:00 to give the details and a member of school staff will call you back.

St Thomas Forest Garden Crowd Funder

Thank you all for your kindness and generosity with your donations to our Forest Garden Crowdfunder.  We are progressing well towards our total of £1000 by the end of the term.  If we can get there, our money will be doubled to £2000 that we can spend on creating an outdoor learning space for your children.

If you would still like to donate but haven’t had the chance yet, please follow this link.

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/develop-outdoor-learning-area-supporting-recycling

Have a wonderful holiday and see you all back safe and well on Monday 4^th January 2021.

A message from Oldham council about the COVID Vaccination

11 Dec 2020

The borough’s Coronavirus vaccination programme starts next week

This is the biggest mass vaccination programme in the history of the NHS

Hi all, sharing an important message from Oldham Council and asking for your support to get the message out to Oldham residents:

We are getting in touch to ask for your support to help with the borough’s Coronavirus vaccination programme.

As you’ll be aware this is the biggest mass vaccination programme in the history of the NHS.

This means our staff, the NHS and support services are having to tackle and overcome challenges and issues on a daily basis.

One area where we hope you can help is passing on some key information to the residents and communities you work with around the roll out of the vaccination and how people will be contacted when it is their turn to receive their vaccination.

Some of our most vulnerable and elderly residents aged 80 and above will be the first to be offered the vaccination.

Residents in these age groups can be wary of answering the phone to numbers they do not recognise. We have already had scams reported to us of people offering a vaccine in exchange for cash.

This is how the appointment system will work:

• You’ll be called by a staff member from a number starting 0161 770.
• The caller will identify themselves and say they are calling on behalf of your GP and they are getting in touch about booking an appointment for a Coronavirus vaccine.
• The caller will then offer dates and times for them to attend clinic. They will also give the location of the site where you will receive it. This may not be your usual health surgery.
• You’ll also be given the time, date and location for the second dose of the vaccination if you are receiving the Pfizer vaccination. It is vital you return and keep your second appointment 21 days later.
• The callers booking vaccinations will not ask for any other personal details other than asking you to confirm your name. They certainly will not ask for any money.
• Once you have received the vaccination you must not drive for 15 minutes after and will need to remain in clinic until that time has elapsed.

Please can you pass these details onto the communities and residents – especially the elderly and vulnerable – you work with and tell them not to worry as they’ll be called when it is their turn.

NHS staff are going to be very busy over the next few months so it is really important that people wait to be contacted by us and not the other way round – we have already taken calls from people. This will help ensure that the process runs as smoothly as possible.

The vaccine is safe and has gone through many months of testing before reaching this stage.

For more information visit the NHS website https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vaccinations/why-vaccination-is-safe-and-important / orhttps://www.oldham.gov.uk/info/201170/coronavirus/2664/coronavirus_vaccination_programme