Nursery closes without notice after claims staff were held at 'gunpoint'

A nursery in Oldham has suddenly shut its doors amid claims staff members were ‘held at gunpoint’.

Oldham Council said reports of a firearms incident at Tiddlywinks were ‘untrue’, while Greater Manchester Police said it had no record of the crime.

The Chadderton facility put out a letter on Friday to ‘shocked and confused parents’.

It read: “It is with a heavy heart that I write to inform you that Tiddlywinks Nursery School Chadderton will be closing with effect from Thursday 10th October 2024 6pm. This decision has been made due to a combination of personal and professional situations that have arisen recently.”

Written ‘on behalf of the management team’, the letter says there have been ‘significant close family bereavements and a distressing incident [which] occurred on 10/10/24 involving several staff members being held up at gunpoint whilst arriving at a training event in Oldham town centre’.

The letter also mentioned ‘unfavourable expectations and demands’ from ‘official regulators’. While a number of workers will be taken on by the organisation’s two other branches – in Heywood and Ramsbottom – others ‘sadly … will be unemployed from this date forward’.

Parents who arrived at the nursery reported being turned away at the door, with no alternative provision for their kids. One parent, who asked not to be named, claimed he only found out from a post online. He had only just joined and paid his fees, he said.

The letter assures parents they will be refunded. One mother said she was ‘shocked and confused’, adding: “This whole thing is an absolute nightmare. I was in disbelief. I couldn’t quite process what he was telling me and how it had happened so abruptly with no warning.

“The letter made me feel very confused as it doesn’t really make much sense. We’ve managed childcare between us today, but for next week and the future we have nothing confirmed. A few local nurseries have reached out to help which has been very helpful, but nothing can be finalised until Monday so we are pretty much in limbo until then. It’s been very stressful.”

A nursery manager said they didn’t want to comment.

An Oldham Council spokesperson said of the claims about a firearms incident: “The claims are untrue, so we will not be commenting on them.”

A spokesperson for Greater Manchester Police said no such incident was reported on the date in question.