Please make sure you arrive at school on time at 8:45 am
New Public Health guidance issued for Oldham as positive test rates increase
We have asked the people of Oldham to stick to the Coronavirus restrictions to help protect themselves, their friends and their families.
To help halt the spread of the virus, save lives, and avoid local lockdown we issued the guidance below for Oldham residents and businesses. This guidance will continue for the next two weeks.
We asked residents to not have social visitors to their home, and to keep two metres apart from friends and family when seeing them outside. People who are “shielding” are asked to continue to take extra care beyond July 31st.
This comes after the number of cases of Coronavirus increased over the last week. Oldham had 119 cases in the seven days to 25 July. By comparison the week ending 17 July had 26 positive cases.
This means a current rate 50.2 positive tests per 100,000 versus 10.2 per 100,000 the week before. This rate is well above Greater Manchester and national averages.
The restrictions mean that:
A significant proportion of recent cases involve multiple individuals testing positive within a household, showing that household spread is an issue – especially in households with large families.
To help avoid a local lockdown please share this message with residents.
To book a Coronavirus test go to https://www.nhs.uk/ask-for-a-coronavirus-test or call NHS 119.
Public Notice
St Thomas’ C E Primary School Oldham - Notification of Proposed Variation to Admission Arrangements for Admission to Reception in September 2021
As a result of measures taken nationally to combat COVID-19, places of worship have been closed since 17thMarch 2020.
As a school with a religious character, this school’s admission arrangements include faith-based oversubscription criteria involving attendance at public worship. These faith-based oversubscription criteria cannot now be satisfied without amendment, and St Thomas’ C E Primary School, as the admission authority for the school, is proposing a variation to the admission arrangements because of this major change in circumstances.
Further information can be found in the policies section on the school’s website:
14th July 2020
Dear Parents and Carers,
As we approach the summer holiday we are all certainly ready for a break! We realise, however, that some of you would like to continue with some learning over the summer and we can help you with this.
The school has been provided with some learning resources which you can use with your children over the summer. We have shared these on our website and they can be found using the following link:
https://www.stthomaswernethprimary.co.uk/summer-home-learning/
Some parents have asked us to keep open the Seesaw accounts over the summer so they can complete learning which has been put on during the last months. There will be no new work set and staff will not be marking or commenting on any work submitted. But the previous work is there for you to access if you’d like it.
Seesaw accounts will be archived at the end of August. In September you’ll get a new log in for your child’s new class.
Please do not feel under any obligation to complete these; they are simply there for your own use if you’d like them.
With best wishes,
Mrs Angela Knowles
Head teacher
Together with colleagues from Public Health England Oldham Council have produced the attached safety leaflet to share with parents/carers about how they can support schools work in opening to increasing numbers of children.
Click the link below to watch the video:
Schools wider reopening safety leaflet and supporting video for parents/carers
19th May 2020
Dear Parent/ Carer
We all hope you are staying safe and well during this time and that your children are accessing the work set for them on the school website. The staff have managed to contact almost all of you over the last few weeks and have loved speaking to both you and the children.
Following the government’s announcement related to schools beginning to reopen, if they think scientific evidence supports this from the 1st June for certain year groups a great deal of work has already begun. This is including risk assessing, the logistics, practicalities and safety for the return of children, the staff and your families. Currently, we are not in a position to say when school will reopen for children other than those of the key workers or vulnerable who have already been accessing school. We hope it will be soon but have to ensure all people’s safety before we can make that decision.
School will close this Friday 22nd May at 3:00 for the Spring Bank half term holiday as published. This means we are closed to all pupils until Monday 8th June. Staff will not be setting work during half term or making contact calls home.
On Monday 8th June we will reopen just for the children of key workers or who are vulnerable.
If you feel that you fulfil the government criteria for key worker or vulnerable, and would like your child to attend school, please contact the office.
May I take this opportunity to say thank you for all for your kind words and support during this difficult time, it is much appreciated by everyone. We wish all of you celebrating Eid over half term have a lovely time.
Kind regards
Mrs A Knowles
Head teacher
We have been sent some useful links to various associations that may help you as parents whilst you are at home with your children.
Click the links below to access the resources:
Resources for adult and children's well being
Oldham Council have been continuing to work with schools and have recognised that resilience is a difficulty at the present time, particularly when families are all at home together. They have been working with one of their partners, Bounce Forward, who have delivered the PENN Resilience training programme in Oldham, to see how we can best support parents and families to support children during this challenging time. Attached is an exciting, free opportunity for Oldham parents
Bounce Forward Raising Resilience- Free Parents Online Course has now been set up for ALL PARENTS in Oldham. Bounce Forward Link
There are three different courses with the firststarting on Monday 20th April. Parents will book on the course directly with Bounce Forward (please see leaflet attached).
The aim of the course is to ease some of the strain caused by families staying home. The sessions will provide tools and resources for parents and children to build resilience and use the current situation as a learning opportunity that will help right now and into the future. The sessions will be useful for all parents who want to learn resilience skills. The downloadable worksheets are designed for children aged nine and above.
School’s Current Provision
We have been following the guidance from both the Local Authority and the Government and are providing the following provision:
School Work for the children
Community response support to help the most vulnerable
I thought that you may be interested to know that Oldham Council, Oldham Foodbank and Action Together are working together to coordinate the delivery of emergency food and other essential personal and household basic items to people in need. If any questions or concerns come to you from vulnerable families in your school, you may find it useful to refer them to the information below
This offer will be for people who are unable to leave the house and don’t have a trusted friend, neighbour or family member to help them. This could be someone of any age.
A new hotline has gone live on 0161 770 7007 for people to call for help. The hotline will be open from 9am-5pm on weekdays and 11am to 2pm on weekends.
After calling the helpline it will aim to get back to people in 24 hours and a package will be coordinated in the following days. The food will be a basic package of items and other essential such as sanitary products and basic toiletries.
The offer is for people in the local community who are genuinely in need as they are self-isolating and don’t have any friends or neighbours who can support them or are unable to leave the house to shop for these items.
We are asking people to use this resource responsibly so that it doesn’t become overwhelmed and so that it can give help to those who need it most.
Hubs are being opened across the borough where supplies will be co-ordinated. This will link into an emergency food offer which will be run by the Council, Oldham Foodbank and Action Together. The hubs will also be able to link people to mutual aid, co-ordinate emergency response volunteers and act as a source of local intelligence.
The hubs will be led by Oldham Council district teams in partnership with Action Together and will be supported by staff from other parts of the council, partners and the community and voluntary sector who have good knowledge of the local community.
The hubs will build on the fantastic work already being done in the community to make sure those in need can access emergency supplies including the fantastic work of Oldham Foodbank and by Age UK Oldham’s Shopping Service.
Some parents have been asking for information on the social media app TikTok.
I have found an informative and thorough link to a parent guide.
Follow the link
https://www.internetmatters.org/hub/esafety-news/tik-tok-app-safety-what-parents-need-to-know/