Oldcastle Weekly Newsletter

School Assembly

Mrs Burr led the online school assembly today and welcomed the children to a sunny Friday.! We heard from a number of classes what they had been doing over the last week - it sounds like a very busy week with lots of practice for our upcoming sorts days being fitted in around our normal learning. We can't wait to welcome parents and carers to our sports day which are being held on 24th June for years 1 to 6 and 30th June for nursery and reception. More details are below.

Mrs Burr asked the children to work on sportsmanship as their school value for the next week. As part of our sports day competitions we ask all children to support other children and work as a team.

Mrs Burr ended the assembly be reminding the children that we have an inset day on Monday. Children should not attend school. Staff will be attending school to complete various training sessions.

Year 6 Activity Week

Year 6 have thoroughly enjoyed their end of school Activity Week! Over the last week children have been able to take part in a circus skills workshop - some of the skills they learnt will be with them for life. The children also enjoyed a trip to Atlantic College where they were able to take part in archery, climbing, abseiling and a trip to the beach. It takes some nerve to do the climbing wall and abseil from the top!! On Thursday the whole of year 6 visited Legoland - we hear that the water slide was a great way to cool off! The children visited Newbridge Fields on Friday to take part in some team games and rounded off the day with an ice cream from the ice cream van that we arranged to visit the school. All year 6 children have been provided with a Leavers Hoody which look great.

All in all a fantastic week for the children creating some fantastic memories. Thank you to the year 6 parents for their support and our staff for providing such a fantastic week for the children.

Sports Day

Sports Day will held on Friday 24th June for children in years 1 to 6 in the Athletics 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 timings for the day are as follows:

• Years 1 to 3 - 9.30am to 11.30am

• Years 4 to 6 - 12.30pm to 2.30pm

Children will come to school as normal and will be walked to Newbridge Fields for their timeslot. Children in years 1 to 3 will return to school following their events.

Parents will be allocated a spectator area - please feel free to bring a chair or picnic rug with you. Children will be situated in the central area and will stay with their class and staff at all times.

Years 1 to 3 will take part in a range of events such as egg and spoon, sprints, obstacle course and of course the tug of war.

Years 4 to 6 will do sprint, relay, skipping, javelin, long jump, obstacle and tug of war.

The PTA will be providing refreshments to parents on the day If you have ordered a house colour t-shirt via the PTA these should arrive home with your child this afternoon. The link to the t-shirt ordering has now closed for the sports day purchase.

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

Oldcastle Sounds Radio Station

We had the pleasure of recording our first collaboration radio show with BryntegFM this week and we are delighted to share this with you. Please click on the link to listen the show Oldcastle Sounds BryntegFM Radio Show

Next week the Radio Champions will be introducing a new section for Happy Birthday Shout Outs. If you'd like a shoutout on our next live show, please send the children an email using radio@oldcastleprimary.co.uk

Also, if you're an organisation or small business and you'd like to sponsor one of our shows or have the children make you a feature advertisement, please get in touch with our school office. We're looking for supporters and sponsors to help us with our enterprise and community activities.

Careers Week - Fashion Designer

Following Careers Week we asked our Fashion Designer Visitor to judge our year 5 mood boards and we are delighted to announce the winners: 1st Prize - Bella, 2nd Prize - Rosie and joint 3rd prize to Evan and Lilly-May. All of year 5 created amazing mood boards marked with their 'pen' names. It certainly was a hard decision to choose our winners. Thank you to Kate for her support and lovely feedback.

• 1st Place - Rainbowprint 524 (Bella) Amazon Voucher and Sweets

Well done! Love the individuality of the designs, they are really original although I can also see how the mood board images have inspired you. I particularly love the composition of the print on the garment, especially the dripping colours. Great use of the colour palette.

• 2nd Place - T for Tanks (Rosie) Amazon Voucher and Sweets

Well spotted! The vest is a really key shape in ladies wear this season - a great trend item. I really like how you have committed to this shape and tried various versions of the same theme to make the final design perfect! I have to do this a lot in my job. Sometimes we have to change something only slightly to make the design work for the customer. Great use of colour and a really commercial design. I could see this in the shops!

• Joint 3rd Place - Corrupted Smiley Leaf (Evan) Sweets

I'm really impressed with your drawing skills especially on the hoodie design - that must have taken ages! This would make a great jumper. The smiley face is also really cheeky, I think children would love that on a jumper. Well done!

• Joint 3rd Place - Cookie Dough 123 (Lilly-May) Sweets

How could I not make this joint 3rd! I love how colourful your final design is! if this was in the shops it would jump off the shelves as it would definitely catch the shopper's eye. Also, rainbows are really on trend because they have such a positive message. I like how you have used the rainbow colours in different ways and how you've thought about how it would work in tie dye which is also a really key trend item. Great job!

All of the children did an amazing job!

PTA Event - Oldcastle Rocks Saturday 9th July

The PTA have been busy planning an exciting event for our school. Oldcastle Rocks will take place on Saturday 9th July from 3pm to 7pm. Everyone is welcome. The PTA have a BBQ, sweet stall, alcohol licence to serve drinks, and live music. We hope you can support their event.

As part of the event the PTA hope to arrange some craft stalls - if you are interested in taking a table to sell craft items please message Angela Minton (Chair of the PTA) on 07584 620033. The PTA will not be charging for the tables but ask crafters to donate a prize for the raffle.

Curriculum - Feedback from parents

From September 2022 all schools will have to implement their curriculum and assessment arrangements in line with the New Curriculum for Wales. (Further information on the Curriculum for Wales can be found by clicking this link - Curriculum Link

This year staff, governors and pupils have worked really hard to design a curriculum that underpins the 4 Purposes of the New Curriculum. As a school, we are very excited about the opportunities the curriculum will bring for both our pupils and the community.

As we implement the curriculum we will continue to evaluate and review what we offer our pupils, ensuring the curriculum is authentic, meaningful and essential for all our pupils.

We would be really interested in your evaluation and feedback on the curriculum and also what you feel we could add to ensure that we are creating confident individuals who will be good citizens and ready for work.

If you would like to contribute we would be really grateful if you spare a few minutes to complete the google form below.

Curriculum Feedback Form

It was the last session of the nursery Language and Play parents session today. It looks like the children and parents all had fun with the book 'Bumpus Jumpus Dinosaurumpus' !! Thank you to the nursery parents that were able to attend the sessions and make them such a success. We were delighted to receive such positive feedback from the parents. We hope the children and parents will treasure the certificate they received.

Bridgend Sports District Rugby

Well done to 4 boys from year 5 who have been selected to take part in Bridgend Schools District Rugby trials next week. Good luck Dion, Isaac, Isaac and Malaki.

Rugby Success

Izzy from year 2 went to her first ever rugby presentation on the weekend for her first year in the U7's for Bridgend Sports Rugby Team. When she started playing for the team, she was too scared to hold the ball but over the year she has worked really hard and has enjoyed every minute. Izzy is now first to want the ball, a great tagger and has even scored some awesome tries! Izzy ended up getting the award for most improved player of the year. This is such a lovely story we are so proud of Izzy and her achievement.

School Vacancy

We currently have a vacancy for a Lunchtime Supervisory Assistant. Please click here for more details.

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 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

Exercise Class

Parents may be interested to learn that an exercise class takes place in Oldcastle Primary main hall every Monday evening from 6pm to 7pm. Everyone is welcome and the cost for the class is £5.

Diary Dates

• 20th June - Inset Day

• 22nd June - Class and Team Photos

• 24th June - Years 1 to 6 Sports Day

• 27th June - Year 1 trip to Cosmeston Lake

• 30th June - Nursery and Reception Sports Day

• 9th July - Oldcastle Rocks

• 22nd July - Last day of 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

Fire Safety Information

The Fire Service have provided us with the following information.

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