Oldcastle Weekly Newsletter

School Assembly

Mrs Littlewood led assembly this morning and reminded the children about the values we first launched earlier this year. In particular, children were reminded to be respectful to adults in the school and be mindful of walking and speaking quietly in corridors. Overall Mrs Littlewood thanked the children for their positive behaviour in school.

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.

Class Newsletter

Class newsletters have been prepared by teaching staff to provide an update on what your child is learning during the summer term. These are available to view on our website or via this link. Class Pages

Here's a taster of information to give you an idea what is happening throughout the school in each year group:

• Nursery

This term, our overarching theme is making connections and in nursery, we will be focussing on 'Traditional Tales'. Throughout this term, we will challenge ourselves to investigate a variety of traditional stories and see if we can make any connections between them. We will look at lots of different ways that traditional tales can be told; books, plays, films, cartoons, ballet etc. We will role-play and challenge ourselves to retell the stories that we are focussing on.

• Reception

The children have settled back in beautifully after our Easter break and are already getting stuck into our new concept. Our overarching concept this term is 'Making Connections'. This term we will focus on traditional stories and the morals they teach us, we will be exploring how traditional tales change over time and read different versions. We will be making connections by looking at the similarities and differences within traditional tales. We will examine the morals of the stories, and how similar situations may appear in our daily lives. We will continue to encourage the children to become more independent and be responsible, sensible citizens of our class community.

• Year 1

Our overarching concept this term - Making Connections and Myths, Legends and Folk Tales and the wisdom they provide to inform our lives.

During the Summer Term, Year 1 will be travelling back in time to explore a variety of Welsh Myths and Legends. We will be working to develop our use of descriptive words. We will then use these to retell stories and work to invent our own. We are looking forward to sending you a copy of our creations made using our green screen equipment.

• Year 2

Our overarching concept this term - School Days, Now and Then.

Welcome to the final term of Year 2. We have planned many exciting activities for the children to enjoy and explore new skills, focused on our concept of Schools Days, Now and Then. This term will also include Sports Day and our exciting Jubilee celebrations. Let the good times begin...

• Year 3

Our overarching concept this term - Castles and their place in Welsh History.

As part of the theme 'Making Connections', the children will be learning about 'castles and their place in Welsh history.' By studying castles in Wales and their locality, children will develop an understanding of how they have contributed to our identity as citizens of Wales. Children will explore how they have protected us, why they existed, how they were governed and how the communities grew to create the foundations for the life that we have today. Children will look at how the purpose of the castles have changed over time as a result of the changing world.

• Year 4

Our overarching concept this term - Making Connections: Famous Inventions and how they have changed the world

This term we will be looking to consolidate our learning in Year 4. We will be focusing a lot on handwriting, spelling and reading. Alongside this, we will continue to look at the importance of paragraphs, punctuation, and grammar as we move into the final weeks in Year 4. We will also be looking at creating our very own persuasive speeches that we will be using in our concept 'Famous Inventions and how they have changed the world' to create a 'Dragon's Den' style pitch in front of some of our Governors and Mrs Littlewood. Miss Matthews and Miss Craven are very excited to see how these turn out!

• Year 5

Making Connections - The role of Parliament and it's place in democratic society.

As we near the end of year 5 we will be exploring techniques in Literacy where learners will have the opportunity to explore and imitate given texts and then innovate to create their own. This way of teaching English allows our students to create imaginative and accurate pieces of work, using precise and specific language. We plan to use engaging stimuli such as 'Escape Rooms' and imagining the skills needed to become an outstanding and influential MP!

• Year 6

Our overarching concept this term: The Global Impact of the Fashion Industry

Welcome to the final newsletter for Year 6. What a year it has been so far. This final term is the most exciting yet, filled with fun activities, opportunities to make memories and preparations for the transition from Primary to Secondary. Let the fun times begin!

Mental Health Awareness Week - Loneliness

During Mental Health Awareness week next week we launched a new pledge to help tackle loneliness. Children have been working on developing letters to residents of our local care homes as part of our pledge to reduce loneliness in our community

Parents may find these activities useful to do with children at home.

https://www.parentingni.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Helping-hand.pdf

The appreciation circle allows children to share positive qualities about each other, helping to build self esteem and foster friendships.

https://mentallyhealthyschools.org.uk/media/2066/appreciation-circle.pdf

Curriculum for Wales

Following the recent parent engagement sessions we are delighted to be able to share the presentation with parents who could not attend. If you would like to discuss any aspect of the new curriculum with us please get in touch by emailing ask@oldcastleprimary.co.uk

Curriculum for Wales Presentation

Careers Week - 6th to 10th June

Careers Week is coming together with a fantastic range of jobs to enthuse our pupils. If you think you can help out in any way please do get in touch. We are happy to have people in who can show us some skills or talk to a class about their job. Our aim is to show our pupils that there is a vast amount of job opportunity in the exciting world of work.

Jubilee Celebrations

This week we emailed parents some suggestions for outfits for our Jubilee celebration day. A reminder of the era chosen by year group along with suggestions for clothing can be found here - Jubilee Era's and Suggestions Children do not need to dress up and can wear their own clothes if they prefer.

The PTA have arranged some special guests for the day and we are very grateful to them for helping us celebrate in style.

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.

After school, we invite parents and carers to join us for refreshments and cakes! The PTA will be offering teas, coffees and cakes for sale from the top of the main yard.

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

Walk to School Week - 16th to 20th May

It is Walk to School week next week. We hope the weather remains fine to allow parents and children to walk to school where possible.

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

Year 6 Leavers Arrangements

This time of year is a very busy one for our year 6 pupils, who are completing a transition programme to ensure they are ready to move onto their chosen secondary school. Brynteg School visited our year 6 classes this week and brought with them some of our past pupils. What a delight to hear from these pupils about how well they had settled into life in Brynteg School.

Year 6 pupils also have the opportunity to take part in an exciting activity week in June. Children will be learning circus skills, completing an adventure day at Atlantic College, having a trip to Legoland and completing a whole host of fun and exciting activities. We can't wait to hear all about it and see the photos. Year 6 parents please ensure you read the email sent earlier this week and complete the Atlantic College consent form.

We have a date for year 6 parents to keep free as we hope to be able to hold a Leavers Assembly for pupils and their parents. We will be shortly sending official invites to the parents but please keep Monday 18th July free between 5pm and 7pm.

Memorial Ceremony

We are currently planning a memorial event for the morning of Saturday 9th July in the school grounds. During this event we aim to recognise the dedication and resilience of our pupils, staff and families during the Covid 19 pandemic. We will provide more details to parents shortly.

PTA Event - Oldcastle Rocks

We are very grateful to our active PTA for the all the exciting events they are able to plan for our children in school time. They are now keen to plan an event for both parents and children and are looking to hold an Oldcastle Rocks event in the afternoon and early evening of Saturday 9th July. We know that the PTA have lots of amazing things planned for the day and we look forward to sharing these with parents soon. In the meantime please keep the date free!

Dwr Cymru visited our years 1 and 3 this week. The children have really appreciated learning about the water cycle and finding out how we can look after our water

Well done to Daniel in year 6 who recently received a merit for his Grade 2 violin exam.

Language and Play - Nursery

The language and play session this morning looked like great fun. Children and their parents read 'The Tiger came to Tea' and made some fantastic face masks.

Reception loved using the wooden blocks to create a boat today. Excellent teamwork!

Years 4 and 5 enjoyed their weekly visit to Newbridge Fields and Bridgend Recreation Centre.

Job Vacancies

We are currently recruiting for a part time Learning Support Officer, Learning Supporting (Maternity Cover) and a Teacher (Maternity Cover). Please take a look here Current Job Vacancies

Free School Meals

If you are in receipt of free school meals you will be sent a packed lunch request form for your child for every school trip or event. Please look out for the letter, complete the form and return to us at least 3 weeks before the event.

School Cross Country (Years 3 to 6)

The second (and final) cross country event of the academic year will be held at Bryntirion Comp. on Saturday 21^st May. The first race will begin at 10am. There will be 4 races in the following order:

• Year 3/4 boys

• Years 3/4 girls

• Years 5/6 boys

• Years 5/6 girls

A couple of reminders:

• Dogs are not allowed.

• Smoking is not allowed.

• Arrive in plenty of time (by 9.30am).

• When leaving please be aware of the remaining races taking place.

• Please stress to parents that it’s still only primary school children running around a field, it’s no more than that.

School Savings Club

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

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

• 6th June to 10th June - Careers Week

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

• 20th June - Inset Day

• 22nd June - Class and Team Photos

• 9th July - Memorial Ceremony

• 9th July - Oldcastle Rocks

• 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

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