Family favourite

LEARNING success (from left) head teacher Mary Sainsbury with learning centre staff Pauline McDermitt, Irene Dilks and manager Bridget Bennett

A CHADDERTON Primary school which is providing a host of family activities has been nominated for a Pride in Oldham Award.

St Herbert’s, Edward Street, opened its £70,000 learning centre a year ago.

And it has gone from strength to strength running thriving before and after-school clubs, a toddler group and holiday clubs.

There are also evening activities and courses for children and adults which have included Beginners IT, Zumba, adult netball, a children’s art club, cookery for men and basic sign language.

The centre aims to get the community involved in the school and parents in their child’s learning.

While other schools hold evening activities, they tend to be run by outside groups who pay rent. In contrast, the centre runs its own activities and is self-sufficient.

Manager Bridget Bennett was delighted with the nomination and said: “Wow, that’s fantastic. We want the best standard of childcare that we can provide and most importantly we want the children to have fun and enjoy it when they come here.

“The before and after-school clubs that we do are thriving now and are obviously needed. I feel they are popular with the children because we focus heavily on them being empowered to make decisions about what happens in the club and that our practise is lead by what the children want.

“We are an inclusive service, offering our holiday club to children from across the borough — at our last holiday club we had children attending from St Matthew’s, St Luke’s, Mills Hill, Hulme and Smithybridge Primary in Rochdale.

“We also have children with special educational needs attending the after-school club.

“As well as supporting working parents, we are here for parents in time of need: family bereavement, emergency childcare, advice, and support during our parent and toddler group. We also have weekly English language support for parents.

“Mrs Sainsbury, the head teacher here, really thought outside the box when she wanted to set this up because it’s not a normal thing for a school. We are open from 7.30 in the morning to 8.30 at night a couple of evenings a week.

“The learning centre must be self-sufficient, functioning separately from the school budget. Therefore we need the support from parents and the wider community in attending our daytime and evening activities, providing extra income to enable the learning centre to continue.”