Week 1 - Friday 10th September 2021

Welcome Back

Welcome back to school following the summer break. It has been lovely to see our pupils and parents again - this September we have also welcomed a number of new pupils to our school community.

All children have settled well back into school life and it has been lovely to have some normality regarding our school operations.

If you have changed any of your contact details over the summer period please remember to let us know. Please complete the change of details form or drop us an email via ask@oldcastleprimary.co.uk

We have lots of exciting developments over the next school year and we look forward to sharing with these with our school community in due course.

Enrichment Programme

Today, we launched the first of our Enrichment Afternoons. The enrichment programme will take place on Friday afternoons and will give the children opportunities to try new and varied activities that may not strictly fit into the curriculum, but that develop character, resilience and motivation, and encourage them to pursue wider goals. It helps to teach life skills that benefit children beyond the classroom and can develop an appreciation for cultural and community issues, teamwork and social responsibility.

Today we had a range of sessions taking place including playing the recorder, karate skills, sign language, weaving, rugby, games skills, pebble painting, forest school, floristry skills, painting to name a few! Below are just a small example of what went on today.

Further information on the enrichment sessions currently being offered can be found on our website. Enrichment Programme

Reward Scheme

We launched our new House Reward Scheme with our children today and they seemed really exciting about the prospect of collecting tokens! All children in the school have been assigned a new house colour and we are planning to name these 'houses' after castles in Wales. Children will be told of their new house colour by Monday. The children have been asked to choose 4 castle names from a list of ten and the favourite castles will be used as our Castle / House Names. Children will be voting for their favourite names in school. We will let you know what the new names are next week when the votes have been collated!

Throughout each term, children and classes can collect 'tokens' that will then be collated as a whole school and rewards will be given to all houses at the end of each half term. To support this we will have House Captains from Year 6 and 2 who will be in charge of collating this information and working with pupils to discuss the rewards system.

We can't wait to see the coin collectors filling up with tokens!

Our whole school coin collector is situated in main reception, and every class will have a class coin collector for children to deposit their coin in to when received.

Children's Voice

Children's Voice is the name we use for our School Council and we are excited to launch Children's Voice again this year.

Our Children’s Voice structure will help prepare our pupils for citizenship by teaching them about roles, rights and responsibilities within the school system, our local community and beyond. The Children’s Voice team will consist of three key roles: Junior Leaders, Children’s Voice Champions and House Captains.

As part of our Children’s Voice, we will also be appointing a Junior Leadership team from pupils in years 5 and 6. These pupils will work alongside the Senior Leadership team. Children in years 5 and 6 have been informed about the application process for our Junior Leaders team.

The roles of the Children’s Voice will centre around developing, promoting and embracing our school vision and values.

The chart below illustrates how our Children's Voice, Junior Leadership Team and House Captains will work.

School Operations

Thank you to all our parents and carers for continuing to keep Oldcastle safe and following our one way system through the school. Please remember we have now reverted to our normal school hours :

• School starts at 8.55am for all pupils

• Nursery children can be collected between 2.45pm and 3pm

• Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 children finish at 3.05pm

• Years 3 to 6 children finish at 3.10pm

Please note the gates will be locked at 9.05am. Any late arrivals should enter through main reception. The St Marie Street gate and internal gates will be opened at 2.50pm. Nursery gate will be opened at 2.45pm for those nursery parents who wish to collect prior to 2.50pm

As a result of the change of times, we have decided to change our one way system. From Monday 13th September, we will no longer operate the one way system. Parents and carers will be able to enter the school site either via the St Marie Street entrance or the South Street entrance. We do ask that parents / carers are mindful of any congestion routes - in particular the St Marie Street access point. Please note this is subject to change if Covid restrictions are altered / amended.

COVID 19

As school starts back, it is anticipated that we may see an increase in the number of Covid 19 cases in our community. As a result we would like to update you on the current situation in regards to Covid 19 in particular the need for children to isolate.

This week, we have received updated advice from the local authority with information on what to do in the event that we receive notification of a positive Covid case.

Following the notification of a positive PCR test, Track, Trace and Protect (TTP) will lead on the identification of close contacts and advise if self-isolation is required. If there is a positive case in a school bubble, the current advice is children under the age of 18 and double vaccinated staff do not need to routinely isolate. The majority of pupils will not be identified as close contacts, however, we may be advised to ‘warn and inform’ parents on the situation.

In primary schools, contact tracing will focus on close friendship groups and any community contact the parent is aware of.

Lateral flow testing is offered as a community approach to identify cases of Covid but is not required on a regular basis by primary school children. Lateral flow tests are available as part of a community-wide approach and these can be ordered online or collected from pharmacies free of charge. A Lateral Flow Test is not a reliable method of identifying Covid 19 - anyone with symptoms should ensure they undertake a PCR test.

The important principle remains that the most effective way to prevent transmission of Covid 19 in our schools is to stop infection from being brought into the school. If anyone tests positive for Covid 19 or has any of the Covid 19 symptoms they should self isolate and not attend school.

Please do continue to let us know if your child is having a PCR test - either call us on 01656 815790 or email us on ask@oldcastleprimary.co.uk and ensure we are provided with the result.

As a school, we have a robust risk assessment in place to ensure the safety and security of our pupils, parents and staff. We will continue to work with BCBC Health and Safety Team and TTP regarding any alterations to our risk assessment.

We appreciate that the advice we are now receiving related to positive cases is very different and can cause concern and anxiety amongst families. Please do not hesitate to get in touch if you want further information or have any concerns.

Family Engagement Officer - Mrs Lisa Diehl

I would like to introduce myself to you as Oldcastle’s new Family Engagement officer. My name is Lisa Diehl and I have worked in education for over 20 years, firstly as a teacher and more recently as an LSO. I have three children, who have all attended Oldcastle; two of which are currently in Year 3 and 6, so many of you will have regularly seen me around the school.

My role is to offer support for parents, carers and families with any issues that you may have in relation to supporting your child either at school or home. I feel passionate that the time spent in school should be a positive one for both pupils and their families, and a big part of that is to develop effective communication between school and home.

I am here to listen and help with any worry or query that you may feel you need support with, no matter how large or small they may be. I have access to a number of agencies who can provide advice and support. I will also be organising a range of workshops/courses, reading cafe and coffee mornings for families throughout the year.

I am very excited about my role and am really looking forward to meeting you. If you have any questions or would like further information, please do not hesitate to contact me. I will be on the yard most mornings and afternoons or you call/email me at the school.

Barney

If we've heard it once we've heard it a million times this week from children commenting how big Barney has grown over the summer!! We have been delighted to see the children (and parents!) interact with Barney this week - he has certainly missed seeing all the children and loves to show them his squeaky tennis ball!! Barney has been visiting classrooms throughout the week and getting used to the school routine once again. Mrs Hardy, our Well-being Champion has even been introducing Barney to maths with the help of our year 1 pupils! This afternoon, he enjoyed a little rest following his first week back to school!

P.E. Days

Children should wear P.E. kit to school on the day their class has a P.E. session.

• Reception - Wednesday

• Year 1 - Monday

• Year 2 - Thursday

• Year 3 - Monday

• Year 4 - Wednesday

• Year 5 - Tuesday

• Year 6 - Thursday

School Savings Club

School Savings Club will start again on Wednesday 15th September, and we can't wait to see our young savers. Please send in the savings book with your child on Wednesday and they will be able to visit savings club with their class.

School Savings Club Poster competition

We are excited to launch a poster competition for the school savings club - see the details below. Please get your entries into the school office by Wednesday 22nd September.

Valleys 2 Coast new development

We were delighted to learn in the school holidays that the local authority have chosen the name for the new development at the junction of St Marie Street and Ewenny Road, and this name was suggested by one of our parents! If you recall we asked parents to provide name suggestions for this development and we are pleased to announce the building will be known as 1-7 Tŷ Moduron - meaning 1-7 Motor House.

Nut Free School

We have a number of children in school with a nut allergy and we ask parents to be mindful of this when sending in a packed lunch or snack. We strive to be a nut free and we hope you can support us in this.

Routine Visits Consent Form

This week we sent you an email asking you to complete our Routine Trip Consent Form. This is an annual form where parents provide consent for your child to take part in routine school visits. Parents will always receive communication regarding specific trips arranged for your child. If you have not completed the form for this year please click here. Trip Consent Form

Pupil Sporting Success

Two of our pupils have had an amazing summer of sport and we were pleased to hear that Heidi Hales (age 7) has been chosen to be on the Welsh National under 11 squash squad following in her sister Eilza Hales’ footsteps (age 9) who has been chosen to be on the Welsh National U13 and U15 Squash squad.

They have also both also been chosen to be in their respective South Wales county tennis teams. (Heidi U9 and Eliza U 12.).

Eliza also competed at the Kenilworth open and won all of her Group A matches and went on to beat England's No.5 ranked U11.

Well done girls fantastic achievement!

Health Food Information

Please see below some useful information on healthy food and drinks.

Community football sessions

Please see below a leaflet regarding football sessions for children in our local community.