Werneth Primary CHAI Ladies celebrate digital skills success

The Werneth Primary CHAI Ladies group have celebrated the completion of its digital skills programme, which is funded by Great Places Housing Group.

The presentation was attended by Deputy Chief Executive of Oldham Council, Helen Lockwood, and Cllr Shoab Akhtar.

Participants were presented with a certificate, to recognise their achievements, as well as a digital tablet that they can use with their newfound skills and knowledge.

The CHAI Ladies project run groups in local schools, including Werneth Primary, and are open to all women who have children or grandchildren at the school.

Their ethos is if you get the parents’ well-being right, the children’s well-being will follow.

CHAI stands for Care, Help And Inspire - and that is what they aspire to do.

The Digital Skills project consisted of several workshops at the school, designed to teach the basics of navigating the digital world, allowing parents and grandparents the opportunity to better support their children and families.

Topics ranged from emails to utilising social media, digital banking and video calls.

Participants found these sessions to be incredibly useful and informative, empowering them to not only engage with their children’s learning online but to also be safe online.

The group felt that they had gained an insight into a new world and had been given the confidence to engage and interact with people and family in new exciting ways.

Opportunities to support families within the community is an important part of the core Werneth ethos, and the school is proud to have been able to support such an important and engaging project.

Jonathan Bell, Principal at Werneth Primary School, said: "We started to work with the CHAI Project in Autumn 2020.

"We recognised that many of the local communities and services were closed and that there was a need for women and families to come together to meet new friends, access support and learn.

"Werneth Primary School has become the community hub: providing adult learning opportunities, bringing services into school so that our parents have better access to what they need and providing a welcoming environment for families that are new to the area.

"We are very proud to embody our school value of ‘care’ through vital initiatives, such as a the CHAI Project, and very proud of the achievements of our CHAI Ladies."

Najma Khalid- Founder and Director - Women’s CHAI Project CIC, said: "The Werneth chai mum’s have worked really hard and we are super proud of how much the mum’s have learnt and how much they have developed over the course.

"We are honoured to be part of Werneth Primary School, a school that cares about the community as a whole, working together to make a difference. 

"These types of projects are that ripple of change.”

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