Week 5 - Friday 8th October 2021

Another busy week in Oldcastle Primary. We are delighted to announce the results of our school elections - please read on to find out who our new Juniors Leaders, House Captains and Pupil Voice Champions are.

We have seen a small increase in positive Covid cases within our school community - please be reassured that we are following welsh government, local authority and public health wales guidance regarding the pandemic. If we are made aware of a positive case within your child's class, we will notify parents via our 'Warn and Inform' letter. This letter advises that your child can still come to school but asks that you remain vigilant for symptoms of Covid 19. Thank you for your ongoing support.

If you need to contact us please get in touch via ask@oldcastleprimary.co.uk.

Reward Scheme

The token collector in main reception is starting to fill up already this term! The tokens are being collected throughout the school and we are looking forward to our new house captains providing us with an update on the total number of tokens collected by each house.

Pupil Voice

Thank to you to all the pupils who submitted an application to become a junior leaders, house captains and pupil voice champion. We have been very busy this week interviewing children who applied to be a junior leader and running elections to determine who will be house captains and pupil voice champions. We were delighted to announce the results of our election in our virtual school assembly this morning. Well done to everyone that put themselves forward for a role in school.

Our Pupil Voice for 2021/22 are .........

Fundraising

Well Oldcastle you certainly did well in your participation in FUNKY FRIDAY!! We were delighted support 'Y Bont' , a special needs charitable nursery based in the grounds of Heronsbridge School and we are even mor delighted to let you know that we raised £675 !!!!!! Thank you so much for your support. We know the charity are so appreciative of the efforts of everyone in Oldcastle.

Y Bont is a small charity who are tasked with raising £300,000 each year to keep their service running. More information on Y Bont can be found here https://ybont.com/

School Savings Club

School Savings Club started back this week and we were delighted to see 78 children save their money. Savings Club continues every Wednesday and we look forward to seeing our savers and hearing what they are saving for. More information on the School Savings Club ca be found on our website. School Savings

Solar Installation Review

Oldcastle Primary has two installations of solar panels on our school buildings and we have recently completed a review of the systems. Our first installation was on our canteen building in March 2019 and this system includes 14 in roof panels. Our second, and largest, installation was installed on our main school building in August 2020 and a total of 62 in roof panels were installed.

We are so pleased with the results from our review that we wanted to share the details with parents. Since the installation we have seen a marked decrease in our purchase of electricity from the national grid - in the period 2020/21 we saw a 28% reduction in the amount of electricity used from our energy supplier. We are half way through our current financial year and we estimate that we will see a reduction of 34% less use of electricity this year. We are delighted that our electricity use and bills has decreased since the installation of the solar panels.

Enrichment Programme

Week 5 of our Enrichment programme The enrichment programme takes place on Friday afternoons and will give the children opportunities to try new and varied activities that may not strictly fit into the curriculum, but that develop character, resilience and motivation, and encourage them to pursue wider goals. It helps to teach life skills that benefit children beyond the classroom and can develop an appreciation for cultural and community issues, teamwork and social responsibility.

Pizza Time

Year 1 have been busy tasting and making pizza's this week. Earlier in the week the children tasted a vairty of pizza toppings and then put their skills to use and made some lovely looking pizza's! Well done year 1.

Wellbeing Champion

Mrs Hardy has been leading groups of children to make improvements to our outdoor spaces this week. The planters in the yard area have been tidied and now contain some herbs which we hope will flourish.

Bullies Out - Youth Ambassador

One of our year 6 pupils proudly wore her Youth Ambassador top to school today and we are so pleased to learn about Seren's involvement with the organisation 'Bullies Out. Seren helps the organisation with fundraising on the weekends and aims to raise awareness of bullying. We hope to highlight the organisation with our pupils and look forward to Seren's informing our pupils as Youth Ambassador. Well done Seren !

School Sports

We are delighted to be able to start some of our after school sports clubs back again. We are currently able to offer rugby and netball to years 5 and 6. It is lovely to see so many children from these year groups participating in the sessions. We are extremely grateful to our staff for providing these after school sessions.

Next term, we will be able to offer football after school sessions to our year 4 pupils. If your year 4 child would like to participate please complete this form by 22nd October. The session will start on Monday 8th November and run every Monday until 4.30pm. Year 4 Football After School Club Form

October is Black History Month

In Wales it is compulsory for all children to be taught about racism and the contributions of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities. At Oldcastle we value the teaching of BAME histories as a way of helping young learners become “informed citizens of the world”. In October, our learning will focus on Black History Month.

School Operations

Don't forget these are the current school hours for drop off and pick up:

• School starts at 8.55am for all pupils

• Nursery children can be collected between 2.45pm and 3pm

• Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 children finish at 3.05pm

• Years 3 to 6 children finish at 3.10pm

Diary Dates

14th October - Individual child photos

24th November - Flu vaccine Reception to Year 6 children - more details will be sent to parents shortly

Nut Free School

We have a number of children in school with a nut allergy and we ask parents to be mindful of this when sending in a packed lunch or snack. We strive to be a nut free and we hope you can support us in this.

Pupil Sporting Success

Eliza is year 5 competed in the Welsh squash open last weekend and we were pleased to share learn that she achieved runner up in the U11 girls category.

Well done Eliza from everyone in Oldcastle.

COVID 19

Thank you for all your support this week by helping us keep our school community safe. As a reminder if your child develops any of the Covid symptoms identified by Public Health Wales please ensure they attend for a PCR test.

• high temperature – this means you feel hot to touch on your chest or back (you do not need to measure your temperature)

• a new, continuous cough – this means coughing a lot for more than an hour, or 3 or more coughing episodes in 24 hours (if you usually have a cough, it may be worse than usual)

• a loss or change to your sense of smell or taste – this means you've noticed you cannot smell or taste anything, or things smell or taste different to normal

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

P.E. Days

Children should wear P.E. kit to school on the day their class has a P.E. session.

• Reception - Wednesday

• Year 1 - Monday

• Year 2 - Thursday

• Year 3 - Monday

• Year 4 - Wednesday

• Year 5 - Tuesday

• Year 6 - Thursday