Oldcastle Weekly Newsletter

School Assembly

Miss Lincoln took assembly this morning and introduced some new ideas to the school. Some of our junior leaders launched a new competition to our pupils as part of our application to achieve the Welsh Bronze Language Award. Children have been asked to design a poster that will be used to welcome people into the school using the word 'Croeso'. The posters will be judged by our Pupil Voice Champions following the closing date of Friday 20th May and the winning designs will be displayed throughout the school.

Miss Lincoln also asked Mrs Evans, our Health and Wellbeing Lead, to explain our new pledge. Mrs Evans explained that as part of Mental Health Awareness week next week we will be launching a new pledge to help tackle loneliness. Children will be working on developing letters to residents of our local care homes as part of our pledge to reduce loneliness in our community. We look forward to sharing some of these with you.

During assembly we heard from some of our classes what they had been learning this week and as ever the classes provided an update on their token collection over the last couple of days. Another busy week in Oldcastle.

School Values

Our school values for this month are Appreciation and Generosity. For these school values children have been asked to be kind, polite, grateful, look out for other people, and generally help out at home and in school.

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

Jubilee Celebrations

We are arranging an exciting event for children and staff on Thursday 26th May to commemorate the Queen’s Jubilee and celebrate the 110 year anniversary of Oldcastle Primary School. Children will have the opportunity to dress up in clothes from an allocated era and will also be learning a song from the decade to perform on the day. Each year group have chosen the following era to dress up as on the day. There is no expectation for parents to buy outfits - next week we will share a range of suggested outfits with parents to help with your planning. Please do talk to the class teacher if you would like to discuss further.

• Nursery - 40s

• Reception - 70s

• Year 1 - 50s

• Year 2 - 40s

• Year 3 - 20s

• Year 4 - 90s

• Year 5 - 80s

• Year 6 - 60's

The PTA are arranging some special guests for the day and we are sure that children will enjoy all the excitement of the celebrations.

Platinum Pudding Competition

The PTA are also arranging a Platinum Pudding Competition as part of our celebrations and we invite parents and carers to become involved. Get your baking equipment at the ready and marvel us with your creations that are fit for a Queen! Cakes should be brought into school on the morning of Thursday 26th May and we have some special guests to judge the cakes. We invite parents and carers to join us for a cake sale after school when we will announce the winners of the cake competition.

New Curriculum for Wales - Parental Engagement Session

Mrs Littlewood was delighted to welcome parents into school this week as part of our parent engagement sessions for the new curriculum for Wales. The new curriculum is an exciting opportunity for Oldcastle Primary School and we look forward to keeping parents informed of our journey.

School Community Forum - 1st meeting Monday 16th May

Don;t forget we are launching our first meeting of the School Community Forum on Monday 16th May from 9am to 10am. We are pleased to be able to launch our parent focus group sessions again and we hope you can join us. Please complete the google form below. We are keen to offer members of our school community the opportunity to become involved in the shaping of continuous school improvement at Oldcastle Primary School. The School Community Forum involves members of the school community meeting once each half term at school to give their opinions, suggestions and support as we review and develop aspects of school life and approaches to teaching and learning. We believe that discussing the proposals for the school with community members, will enable us to ensure the best provision for our children.

School Community Forum - Registration Form

Sports Day

Sports Day will held on Friday 24th June for children in years 1 to 6 in the Atlantics Track in Newbridge Fields. Children in years 1 to 3 will complete their events in the morning and children in years 4 to 6 will complete events in the afternoon. All children will require a packed lunch on this day.

The PTA will be providing refreshments to parents

Nursery and Reception sports day will be held on Thursday 30th June in the afternoon at Heronsbridge School. More details shortly.

House Colour T-shirts - PTA Fundraiser

The PTA are pleased to announce that house colour t-shirts are now available for order via the link below. Please order and pay online by Friday 27th May and t-shirts will be delivered to the school for your child to bring home in time for sports day. There is an option on the order form to personalise with your child's name if you wish. Can we also request that you add a note of your child's class to make distribution quicker.

https://www.cheekybabytees.co.uk/products/oldcastle-school-sports-day-t-shirts

PTA Meeting - All welcome to attend

The PTA have been very lucky to have a wonderful team of parents, teachers, local businesses and friends of the school who have made it possible to create many wonderful fun-filled days for the pupils of Oldcastle! The great news is, we have more planned!

If you would like to help make the magic come to life and get involved with the fun in any way you can, please come to our next PTA meeting at the Oldcastle Pub on Nolton Street on Thursday 12th May from 7pm. All are welcome to come along and we look forward to seeing you!

Mrs Diehl held her first Language and Play session for nursery parents this morning. Thank you to the parents who registered an interest in this session. The sessions are designed to focus on the importance of language and learning through the medium of play, songs and rhymes and everyday activities.

Year 1 have been exploring how yeast helps make our dough rise when making bread. That bread looks amazing!

1ML had a lovely time at the library this week. The children explored the books and even had a treasure hunt. They listened to the Legend of the Sword in the Stone and at the end everyone earned a Library Skills Certificate for their outstanding work! 1V will be visiting the library on Wednesday 11th May.

Year 2 have been learning about the invention of photographs this week. The children have looked at the difference between sepia and modern photography and have used editing software to change photos of ourselves into how they would look in the past.

Following on from their recent squash success, we were delighted to learn that Eliza and Heidi had a productive day competing in the British silver squash event in Manchester last weekend. A very tough final but we were delighted to hear that Eliza won the U11 girls competition against the English No. 1 seed Heidi competed in the mixed U9 competition and achieved runner up. Her first trophy! Well done to both girls on your sporting success.

Job Vacancy - Administration Officer (Part Time)

We are currently recruiting for a part time Administration Officer. Please take a look here Admin Officer Vacancy

School Savings Club

School savings club will continue from next week on every Wednesday.

Lost Property

Once again, we have a vast amount of lost property. If your child has lost an item in school please do come in and look through the lost property. Lost property will be donated to charity after a period of time.

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

• 26th May - Jubilee Celebrations

• 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

Inset Days 2022 / 23

Inset days for the next academic year have now been confirmed and these are as follows:

• Monday 5th September 2022

• Monday 7th November 2022

• Friday 31st March 2023

• Friday 26th May 2023

• Monday 24th July 2023

Lost Property

Do any of these items belong to your child? As previously mentioned we have a vast amount of lost property and these are some of the more recognisable items that have not been claimed. Please contact the school office if you think they belong to your child.

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