Dear Parents and Carers,
What a busy term so far since September. I cannot believe that we are in December already and we only have 3 weeks before we break up. Firstly, can I thank everyone for their incredible support during this challenging time. There have been so many changes to timings and routines over the term along with a number of bubble closures and they have all gone smoothly thanks to your help and the amazing staff we have in school supporting them.
We have a number of things happening in school before the end of term and I wanted to share some dates with you.
To celebrate Advent this year we are doing something different each week to remember the meaning of each of the advent candles. This week was ‘Love’. Next week is ‘Joy’ and we are holding our Christmas dinner and our Christmas parties during the week. Each class will contact you telling you the day the party will be on for your child. They can come wearing their own clothes on the day of the party.
On the same day as the Christmas dinner, we are having a Christmas jumper day. It would be lovely to see all the children with a Christmas jumper on but please don’t worry if your child doesn’t have one – come in a brightly coloured jumper instead! What we would ask is if all children could bring a £1 donation that will go to a fund-raising event I will explain further down the page.
Our last week in school will be ‘Peace’ where the children will be spending time in classrooms writing prayers and poems, sharing them with the other children.
On the final day of term and preparing for Christmas we will focus on ‘Hope’ where our assembly will look at what hope is and what we are all hoping for.
It will be a lovely end to the term, we will share our work on the school website.
We have also bought tickets to watch an online pantomime this year All of the children will get the chance to see ‘Who’s behind us’ and enjoy the show ‘Oh no they won’t!’
Dates:
Wednesday 9th December – Christmas dinner day and Christmas jumper day (£1 per child)
Friday 11th December- Reception and Nursery Christmas Party
Friday 18th December – School closes at 1:30 for the holiday. We come back to school on Monday 4th January
If you or a family member test positive over the Christmas period can you please inform school immediately by either sending a message on the Facebook page or by filling in the form on the school website. These will be checked regularly but you may not get a reply as quickly as usual.
Facebook - @stthomaswerneth
Website - https://www.stthomaswernethprimary.co.uk/covid-form/
Hopefully the vouchers for children who have been required to isolate, and are in receipt of free school meals, should have all been sent. There have been some problems with certain email addresses and phone numbers. If yours has not arrived yet, please speak to the school office or send me a message on the school website:
https://www.stthomaswernethprimary.co.uk/free-school-meals/
To finish I wanted to explain a project we have begun to undertake that will make a huge difference in our school and to our children. We have always wanted to develop our Forest School area at the back end of the playground but have never had enough money to be able to do what we really wanted.
We entered a competition with Marks and Spencer and won! What that meant was they would match any money we could raise up to £5000. So, if we as a school can raise £5000, they would give us another £5000 for free!
This money would go toward developing the area behind the fence on the playground to: add planters for the children to grow their own fruit and vegetables; learn to build shelters and light fires in our fire pit; learn more about recycling and some of the bugs and creepy crawlies which live in Oldham.
The money you will bring in for the Christmas jumper day will go towards this and any other donation you feel you can spare would be gratefully accepted. I have attached the link to the page where there is more information.
https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/develop-outdoor-learning-area-supporting-recycling
It is something that would be brilliant to have as part of our children’s education and is very exciting.
Thank you once again for your care and support
Mrs Knowles and Mr McGrath