Oldcastle Weekly Newsletter

Wow what a busy last week of term we have had.

Our children have been so resilient over the past week during the high temperatures that we experienced. We modified some of our operation and ensured that we all kept as cool as possible during the extreme heat - children were even treated to a nice cool ice pop!

On Monday we had the year 6 leavers assembly, Tuesday year 3 held a banquet, on Wednesday year 6 performed a fashion show for the whole school, and Thursday was our amazing Reward Day. Finally you would have heard the school bell ringing at pick up time today - each year 6 child loves to ring the bell as they leave Oldcastle for the final time. Please read on for more details.

Year 6 Leavers Assembly

This year we were so pleased to be able to hold the year 6 leavers assembly and we decided to hold this event after school. Parents were invited to the ceremony where Mrs Littlewood welcomed the children and the guests. During the ceremony Mrs Evans and Miss Lincoln spoke about each child and told a little story about how they will remember each child/ Every child was presented with a certificate and congratulated by Mrs Littlewood.

In line with tradition we also presented a few awards to children. We have a number of awards that have been in place for many years and we were delighted to be able to present these in person to children with their families watching.

Following the ceremony, children and parents were invited to have burgers, homemade pizza, crisps and drinks. Thank you to Mrs Whiteley and Mrs Peters for providing the catering for the event. We would also like to thank the PTA for supporting yet another event and helping us run the event smoothly.

Below are the details of the children who were presented with the specific awards.

Year 3 Banquet

To end their topic, year 3 held a banquet this week and invited Mrs Littlewood to attend. During the banquet children performed songs, dances and thoroughly entertained Mrs Littlewood. Well done year 3.

Year 6 Fashion Show

Year 6 performed an amazing fashion show for the whole school on Wednesday afternoon. We were so impressed with the upcycled outfits that the children had designed. Miss Kennett acted as our compere and described each of the outfits - we were delighted to have a few special guests from Brynteg who came along to watch the fashion show. The outfits were truly amazing each one unique to child. Please click here to view a short video of the children showing their creations! Fashion Show Video

Junior Leaders, House Captains and Pupil Voice

Over the past week we invited application to become a junior leaders and house captain in from children in years 4 and 5. Following a vote with the rest of the school we were delighted to announce the results in an online assembly earlier this week. Our new structure for our junior leaders and house captains from September is as follows:

Rewards Day

On Thursday we arranged a Rewards Day for all our children and we were delighted to surprise the children in the morning with a fantastic range of activities they could take part in. The day was a fantastic event and we were so pleased to be able to say thank you to all our children for embracing our new rewards system. We have uploaded a range of photos to our website - to view please click here. Rewards Day Photos

Letter from Mrs Littlewood

Dear Parents

I want to end the term by saying a big thank you for all your support in what has been another exciting year at Oldcastle. We feel that the school community continues to grow, which was evident in the latest event ‘Oldcastle Rocks.’ We are lucky to have such a dedicated and hardworking PTA who work with us closely to create exciting events for our pupil as well as raise funds from our school.

From September, it is statutory for all Primary Schools to deliver the New Curriculum for Wales. As you may be aware over the last two years, the school has been working hard with pupils, staff, parents and governors on making the changes and we are excited about what the curriculum will offer our pupils. We will keep you updated on our curriculum journey as the new year begins. In line with the statutory guidance, the school will be making changes to our assessment policy and how we report to parents. For example, next year we intend to hold two parents evenings as well as providing the annual report to parents. Further information on assessment will be provided in the new academic year.

Last week, we were excited to have our ‘Bump Up Day’ when children are excited to meet their new teacher. We know in September it can be sometimes be difficult to settle into new changes and routines - a short video from your child’s new class teacher is available to view on our website. We also aim to hold a parents evening early in the new term to allow you to discuss how your child is settling in.

On Monday, we celebrated our year six pupils in our leavers assembly. We are always sad to see the pupils leave us, but we know they are ready for their next academic journey. We wish them all the very best and we look forward to hearing how they get on in their new schools.

I would like to finish my letter by saying how proud I am of the all pupils. They have embraced everything we have offered them during the past school year including the new token and house system. The amount of points that have been collected for each house is absolutely phenomenal. We are looking forward to rewarding all our pupils with a special 'Rewards Day' tomorrow.

The overall scores for the school year are detailed below:

Lastly, I would like to wish you all a good summer break and I look forward to seeing everyone again in September.

Kind regards

Mrs Ceri Littlewood

House Totals for 2021/22

Year 5

As part of their democracy project, year 5 developed election pledges and presented these to the rest of the school this week! Well done year 5.

School Sports

We were delighted to get our sports team back up and running in this financial year. Both netball and rugby teams were able to compete in some inter school matches over the autumn and spring term. The netball team were able to take part in a special game against staff today!! It was fiercely competitive in both games and great fun for children to watch. Well done Mrs Williams for arranging. Barney even wanted to take part at one stage!

Thank you

Thank you to Mrs Abigail Roberts who has created an amazing mural for us on external walls by reception. Mrs Roberts was assisted by Mrs Thomas and Mrs Murdoch. We love it!

It has certainly been a busy school year - we are very grateful for all the support we have received from parents, carers, pupils, staff, governors, PTA and our local community. Here is a small reminder of what we've achieved during the school year 2021/22.

September

We were delighted to launch our new reward and house point system in September. Every child has positively embraced the new scheme and this week we were amazed to learn that a total of 94,101 tokens had been collected by all the pupils in the school over the year. We are so proud of our children for helping make the reward scheme such a success. September was also the time when we launched our Friday afternoon enrichment sessions for all pupils. Children love the enrichment sessions and we are looking forward to developing these sessions further in the coming school year. If you can help or know of a great activity / skill that would be good for enrichment please get in touch as we are always open to suggestions. Our Pupil Voice was re-launched in September with some new roles for our children. The junior leaders, pupil voice and house captains have played a pivotal part in developing Oldcastle Primary over the last year and we are extremely grateful to their commitment.

October

Mrs Diehl, our Family Engagement Officer, was appointed in October and we were thrilled to be able to commit to this role. Mrs Diehl acts as an important link between the school and our parents and has completed a range of courses over the past year to fully support our pupils and parents. School Savings has gone from strength to strength over the past year - year 5 pupils have been helping run the club alongside Mr Faulkner and we look forward to seeing our young savers back in September.

November

On 10th November, we came together as a whole school to commemorate Remembrance Day. We had not been able to come together as a whole school for such a long period of time we were delighted to congregate on the main yard. Mrs Littlewood played The Last Post on a speaker, and following the ringing of the school bell we all fell silent for one minute. Children in all years worked hard to create a special display to mark Remembrance Day. Using our small milk bottles children drew poppies on the bottles and these were used as a whole school display in the main hall.

December

December was a busy month as we held our STEM week which focussed around the topic 'Houses and Homes'. The week culminated in a fantastic display throughout the corridors in school - we called the display 'The Streets of Oldcastle' and this allowed all year groups to show off what they had been doing in class. All children were able to visit the display and it was lovely to hear the children chattering about the amazing houses they had seen!

Our junior leaders also took part in the Super Ambassador Project with the Children's Commissioner for Wales. They had to complete a mission to share how our school supports well-being. We love the video - well done junior leaders!. Here's a reminder of the video.- Super Ambassador Video

We were delighted to learn that we had retained the Eco Schools Platinum Award in December!

In the lead up to the end of the year we also arranged Carols on the Yard for our parents with the help of our PTA and took over 350 pupils to see the pantomime in Porthcawl! Nursery and reception were treated to an Elf Production in school too.

Just before Christmas Barney celebrated his first birthday!

January

At the start of 2022 we were pleased to launch the Afghanistan Pledge which was suggested by one of our junior leaders - Charlie. The pledge involved all pupils in the school walking around the yard to accumulate miles - the children were challenged to walk the number of miles that is the distance between Afghanistan and Bridgend. The challenge to walk over 3692 miles was a difficult one but we were pleased to see all classes getting behind the challenge and raising sponsorship money for the disasters emergency fund. As a school we raised over £2945 for the Disasters Emergency Appeal.

February

We were super excited to launch our very own radio station in February. Our radio champions have really grasped the preparation and delivery of radio shows which are broadcast to children through our internet. We also record these shows and are able to upload to our website for parents and children to listen at home. Oldcastle Sounds was the very first radio station in a school in Bridgend and we can't wait to see how Oldcastle Sounds is developed in the next school year.

March

Our annual Eisteddfod took place in March and the day started with an online assembly led by Mrs Littlewood and during the assembly, we learnt who this year's Bard was. This traditional ceremony has taken place in Oldcastle for a number of years and the Bard is awarded to a year 6 pupil who has won the poetry competition. This year our Bard is Lily T and we were delighted to see her fellow classmates robe her as part of the traditional ceremony. Lily then read her poem to the rest of the school - you can view the poem by clicking on this link. Bard Poem All children celebrated her achievement with a parade through the main hall waving their welsh flags. We were so pleased to be able to perform the ceremony and invite pupils to share in the ceremony. It is a tradition that we hope to continue for many years.

Our house captains were busy throughout the day announcing the winners for each competition. At the end of the day we all met on the schoolyard and celebrated all the successes of the Eisteddfod and Mrs Littlewood announced the winning house Well done Ty Glas / Blue house.

Oldcastle Sounds was also officially opened by Bridge FM DJ Lee Jukes in March.

April

In April we relaunched our school moto - during an inset day we reminded ourselves of the wall plaque that is displayed on the original part of the school building with the words 'Goreu Cam, Cam Cyntaf' written. This plaque would have been installed when the school was built in 1912. The words can be translated as 'The most important step is the first step' We now use this phrase on our school branding and logo's.

We had a Sensory Room built during the school holiday period.

May

We launched our School Community Forum in May. 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. We look forward to continuing with the forum in the next academic year.

We had such a lovely day on Thursday 26th May celebrating the Platinum Jubilee and the school being 110 years old. We were very grateful to our PTA for developing the event and arranging the visit from Organised Kaos. The circus entertainers were fabulous and certainly wowed the children with their skills! Children were also able to take part in a circus skills workshop to develop a few skills of their own. Throughout the day the whole school were entertained by each year group who performed brilliantly a song they had learnt for the celebrations. We were able to record the songs and we are delighted to share these with you - please click here. Our children looked amazing and we thank parents for supporting our celebrations! As ever our amazing staff pulled out all the stops with their outfit choices too.

June

Wow our very first Careers Week was a tremendous success. The smiling faces of the children and staff are all that we needed to know that the week was worthwhile. We were so grateful to all of our visitors and the support we received.

Year 6 thoroughly enjoyed their end of school Activity Week in June! Over the week children were 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 the 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 a cold treat 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.

Sports day was held for children in years 1 to 6 on 24th June in the Athletic Track in Newbridge Fields - it was so lovely to be able to hold our sports day once again and we were so pleased to have such fantastic support from our parents. The Nursery and Reception sports day in Heronston School was also a great success and it was lovely that so many parents were able to support the event. Once again we are very grateful to our PTA for providing the refreshments at both events.

July

In July the PTA launched our very first Oldcastle Rocks. Thank you to our wonderful PTA for making Oldcastle Rock! The event was a huge success and we were very grateful for the support received from the entertainers, staff and parents helpers - it was a delight to see the school grounds filled with so many people who supported the event. The PTA were delighted to let us know that they raised an amazing £3000 for our school.

Children were also been introduced to our new curriculum in July and found out how Barney will be helping them in September. Children wer able to listen to our Oldcastle Story about how Barney is looking forward to the start of the new school year! Please click the link below to listen to the story. Barney and the Four Purposes of the Curriculum

Finally in our last week of term we celebrated our year 6 children with a fantastic leavers event in the hot weather, and arranged a day to remember for all our children in the Rewards Day.

Barney is now off to enjoy his summer break but will be raring to get back to school in September - we will be sure to keep you updated on his summer holidays on our social media accounts.

Thank you to our wonderful pupils and staff for making such fantastic memories for us all over the past year.

Today we said farewell to Miss Kennett as she moves onto a new school from September.

Thank you for everything you have done for Oldcastle Miss Kennett even matching outfits with Miss Lincoln!! You smashed the climbing wall on Rewards Day too!

Year 6 teachers skipping out of school with the year 6 children after they had rung the bell!!!

Start of school September

Don't forget we have an inset day on Monday 5th September. Children are back to school on Tuesday 6th September - school starts at 8.55am and we will have staff on the yard to help direct you to your child's new class.

Fundraising

Avya in year 1 is young ambassador for Velindre Cancer Institute and is fundraising by setting herself a target of walking 50km throughout August in memory of her late mother (Sauj). The fundraising aims to make improvements towards Velindre family room and to support young families who have a family member diagnosed with cancer.

If you wish to donate here is a message from Avya and her father - There is no better feeling than making somebody smile and give a hope. Your donation will allow Velindre to continue to provide hope for the future. If you would like to contribute and support this cause please visit - https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/avyaktavinod

Good luck Avya we are very proud of you and look forward to hearing about your fundraising effort in September!

Stage Debut!

Congratulations to Loic from year 4 who had his stage debut as Bugsy Malone last Saturday with his drama group. We hear he was brilliant! Well done Loic!

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

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

• Tuesday 8th 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