Oldcastle Weekly Newsletter

School Assembly

It is that time of the term again when we count our school tokens and announce the results to the children. During this term, children have collected an amazing total of 11963 coins - the coin collector boxes were bursting in main reception! Well done to everyone for continuing to work hard to collect tokens.

We were delighted to announce the coins collected by each house colour.

House Colour Rewards - These will take place next week

We will of course ensure that all food allergies and dietary requirements are taken into account for any food related rewards - please ensure that we are up to date with information on your child. Yellow House has been awarded the third place reward for this half term. Pupils have chosen to spend some time in the yard with their bikes, skateboards or scooters. If your child is in Yellow House, please could they bring their bike, skateboard or scooter (do not worry if they don’t have one, we can provide these in school) and helmet to school on Friday 8th April. Scooters, bikes and skateboards may be stored on the green area of the main yard and will only be used at the allocated times. They can then be collected at the end of the school day.

School Values

Our school values for this month are Community and Service. Over the next week children have been asked to continue working on their behaviour lining up for school dinners and being respectful to the canteen staff.

New Curriculum for Wales - Parental Engagement Session

The Curriculum for Wales is changing. Teachers and education experts from Wales have been working together to create a new Curriculum for Wales. In Oldcastle we are working towards designing a curriculum for our children that supports the 'four purposes' of the new curriculum.

As part of our curriculum design we will support your child to become:

* an ambitious, capable learner, ready to learn throughout their life

* an enterprising, creative contributor, ready to play a full part in life and work

* an ethical, informed citizen, ready to take part in Wales and the world, and a

* a healthy, confident individual, ready to lead a fulfilling life as a valued member of society.

We would like to invite parents to attend an informal session on the new curriculum with Mrs Littlewood and other senior leaders on Thursday 5th May. This session will inform parents what we are doing in Oldcastle as part of our planning to implement the new curriculum from September 2022. There are two sessions - one at 9.30am and one at 5.30pm.

If you would like to attend please complete the following google form. Curriculum Engagement Session

School Times

Late arrivals cause a great deal of disruption to the class and we remind everyone that school starts at 8.55am. Please can we also remind parents of some of our older children that there is no supervision on the yard and children should not arrive at school before 8.40am.

Careers Week - 6th to 10th June

This year we are delighted to launch a new proposal for Oldcastle in the form of a Careers Week!! Our Careers Week will be taking place after May Half Term with the aim of providing children with inspiring and motivating career options available.

With the implementation of the new Curriculum for Wales we will support children to be

• ambitious, capable learners ready to learn throughout their lives

• enterprising, creative contributors, ready to play a full part in life and work

• ethical, informed citizens of Wales and the world

• healthy, confident individuals, ready to lead fulfilling lives as valued members of society.

We believe that a Careers Week will be a fantastic opportunity for our children and achieves the four purposes as set out above. We hope to arrange for many visitors to come into school throughout the week and talk to the children and their job. We know that many of our parents have a job that will inspire our pupils so we hope you can help. If you think you can help please complete the google form with your details - Careers Week - Parents

Fundraising for the children and families of Afghanistan

We are delighted to announce that we received more sponsorship money for the Afghanistan Appeal. We have now raised over £3100 for our Afghanistan Appeal. All children in school have been taking part and are walking the number of miles from Afghanistan to the UK as a school collectively. Each class complete a walk around our school yard on a regular basis to accumulate the total number of miles required which is an astounding 3,692 miles!

We are pleased to report that children have now completed the walk and actually exceeded the number of miles required!!!

Since the beginning of our pledge we have walked over 3,976 miles!!!

Thank you for supporting the Afghanistan Appeal.

Cross Country Years 3 to 6

The Bridgend Schools Cross Country events for children in years 3 to 6 took place last Saturday and we were delighted to see Lewis and Hannah from year 5, Darcy from yr 4, and Frankie and Aaron from year 3 attending. Mrs Evans met the pupils and their parents at the venue and was so pleased with their efforts. Well done everyone for doing so well and congratulations to Lewis for achieving third place in his age group.

The next competition will be held at Bryntirion Comprehensive School on Saturday 21st May and is open to all children in years 3 to 6.

Rugby Team Visit

We are excited to let our rugby team know that they will be going on a visit to the Brewery Fields on Monday 4th April!! The team will be able to see behind the scenes at the Brewery Fields and see the facilities that are provided for the players. Following the tour the rugby team will complete their normal rugby training session on the Brewery Fields pitch!! We are very grateful to the Brewery Field management for allowing us to visit. Rugby team parents - please note that children will need to be collected from the Brewery Fields at 4pm on this day.

Netball and Rugby Fixture

Today, we took a netball and rugby team to enjoy a fixture in Pen-y-fai Primary School. Both teams were so excited to be able to play a fixture - it was the first time our rugby team have been able to participate in a fixture. Well done to everyone who took part and a special thank you to Mrs Williams, Mrs Price, Mrs Evans and Mr Murdoch for arranging the fixture. The children were thrilled to return victorious winning their matches:

• Netball Year 5 -won 6 - 1

• Netball Year 6 won 25 - 2

• Rugby won 50 - 2

Year 4 Stop-Motion Movies

Year 4 have been working hard to create Stop Motion movies over the last week The films focus on ocean pollution and aim to persuade people not to pollute and think about their use of plastic. Mrs Littlewood, Miss Hodgson and Mrs Peters were delighted to receive an official invitation to the premiere of the videos next week and we hope to share these with you in our newsletter.

Year 6 Film

This term, Year 6 have read C.S. Lewis' The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe as the whole class reading book. On Friday 8th April, we will be watching the film to discuss the differences between motion pictures and original text. The film is rated PG. If you have any concerns please contact ask@oldcastleprimary.co.uk.

Jubilee Celebrations

We are working hard on plans for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee later this year and we hope to share our exciting plans with parents next week!

Year 2 Message to Parents

Next term, our year group concept is ‘School: Now and Then’. During the first few weeks, we will be exploring the key questions: How do we know what life was like in the past? and How do we record memories? For this, we would be very grateful if children could bring in anything that holds / represents or symbolises a special memory in their own lives. This could be photographs of a special time, medals they have won, gifts they have received, toys that hold special memories etc. We will be sharing these memories with one another, as well as writing about them so please ensure that children are happy to talk about the things they are bringing in. Please could you send these things in a bag / box clearly labelled with your child’s name. As part of our topic, we will also be exploring what school was like for our grandparents and parents. If you have anything that you would be willing to share or bring in for us we would be extremely grateful. We also hope to interview as many family members as possible on our radio station so are looking for anyone that would be interested in telling us all bout their childhood school memories. If you think you can help us please speak to us on the door or email ask@oldcastleprimary.co.uk

Thank you so much for your continued support.

Miss James and Mrs Roberts

Children in nursery have been children playing with our new wooden maths blocks. Inside they created a city with bridges and roads, outside they made their own car with wheels, a seat and windows.

Another busy Friday afternoon with lots of lovely activities taking place for enrichment afternoon

Year 6 are continuing with their team building exercises this week they had to turn over a blanket without getting off. Looks like great fun!

Year 1 are loving their karate sessions with Miss Vaughan who seems to be inspiring the children to take part in karate outside of school!

School Bags

We have a very limited amount of coat and bag storage at school and we ask that children are mindful about the size of the bag that they bring to school. Some bags are very large and cause issues with storage in our cloakroom areas. Children only need to bring a water bottle, lunch box (if applicable) in their bag so do not require a large bag.

School Savings Club

School savings club will continue on every Wednesday.

Breakfast Club

Please can we remind parents that breakfast club starts at 8.30 am with the last drop off being 8.40am. Parents must sign children in to breakfast club.

Inset Days

Don't forget we have two inset days after the Easter holidays on Monday 25th and Tuesday 26th April - children return to school on Wednesday 27th April.

Water Bottles

Please could children only bring water in their water bottles and not squash.

Contact details

If any of your contact details have changed please let us now so that we may update our records. You can either complete a Change of Details online form here, call us or email us via ask@oldcastleprimary.co.uk

Diary Dates

• 11th to 22nd April - Easter Holidays

• 25th April - Inset Day

• 26th April - Inset Day

• 27th April - Return to school

• 2nd May - Bank Holiday

• 5th May - Nursery, Reception and Year 6 Long Class Photos

• 30th May to 3rd June - Half term

• 6th June - Return to school

• 13th June to 17th June - Year 6 Activity Week

• 20th June - Inset Day

• 22nd June - Class and Team Photos

• 22nd July - End of summer term

In the event that you have a concern regarding a child please follow this procedure:

• During school hours please contact Mrs Ceri Littlewood, safeguarding lead at Oldcastle Primary School.

• Out of school hours please contact the out of hours Emergency Duty Team Tel No 01443849944

At Oldcastle, we are proud of each other and ourselves. We nurture all of our community so that we grow as confident, responsible and happy people. Oldcastle school is more than just learning.

• We try hard for each other

• We act responsibly

• We treat people how we’d like to be treated

• We work as a team

• We trust and respect each other

• We listen and learn together

• We share knowledge and experience

Together we make the difference

Together we shape innovative experiences

More information on our values and visions can be found on our website. Visions and Values

COVID

Please take time to refresh yourself with the current COVID Rules in place in Wales

• If you or your child get a positive lateral flow test result, most people will not need to take a PCR test to confirm the result. You must self-isolate immediately if you get a positive rapid lateral flow test result.

• Self-isolate for 5 days if you test positive for COVID-19. You should take a Lateral Flow Test (LFT) on day 5 and day 6. If either LFT is positive, you should remain in isolation until 2 negative LFTs are received 24 hours apart..

If your child does have a PCR or a positive lateral flow test please let us know via our ask@oldcastleprimary.co.uk email address or by telephoning 01656 815790.

When we are notified of a positive case in school we are required to send an 'Inform' letter to those in the same class as the case. If we have more than 2 cases in a class we are required to send a 'Warn and Inform' letter to parents - this letter provides further advice on LFT testing. If a warn and inform letter is sent we are not required to re-send the letter for a seven day period even if there are additional cases.

We are very grateful to parents for your support during the Covid pandemic.