Week 14 - Friday 13th December 2019

Welcome to our weekly newsletter and week 14 of the school year. We have had a busy week with Christmas concerts, school trips and Christmas dinners. School finishes on Friday 20th December at normal finish time. We return to school on Monday 6th January at 8.55am.

Christmas Concerts

This week we have had performances from Nursery, years 5/6, and years 3/4 - fantastic performances by all. Next week we are looking forward to seeing our reception children perform. Thank to you to all parents and grandparents who have supported our concerts and given so generously towards our Christmas raffle. We are so grateful to members of the PTA who have been able to provide refreshments at all our concerts - we hope you have enjoyed.

Christmas Trips

This week children in year 1 were delighted to visit Father Christmas in Dan Yr Ogof caves. The weather did not dampen spirits, and children and staff enjoyed the visit. It looked truly magical.

Year 2 children also visited Cardiff Castle and took part in some lovely Christmas activities.

Photographs

Please can we remind parents that photographs of children other than your own child on school trips or in concerts should not be shared on social media. Thank you for your co-operation.

Years 3 to 6 Pantomime

Children in years 3 to 6 are looking forward to visiting the Grand Pavillion in Porthcawl next Wednesday to see Snow White in pantomime. Children who are attending will need to bring a packed lunch on Wednesday.

Christmas Tree Festival at Nolton Church

Children in reception to year 6 visited Nolton church today to view the Christmas Tree Festival. Our tree looked lovely - thank you to children who created a decoration made out of recycled material for the tree and supported our theme 'It was on a starry night'.

Christmas Dinner Day

A big THANK YOU to our catering team who managed to feed 322 children a Christmas dinner on Thursday! That's an awful lot of turkey, stuffing balls, potatoes, vegetables and gravy!! Serving the dinners was a military operation and we are grateful to the catering team and our staff for making it all run smoothly. The catering team made an extra special effort to decorate the dining hall for the children.

Our school canteen dining hall is the focus of PTA fundraising efforts at the moment. It is in desperate need of modernisation and we are working to get new plans together to make the area inviting for children. We look forward to sharing designs with children and parents. The PTA are planning lots of exciting activities to raise funds for the refurbishment of the canteen - we will share these with parents in 2020.

Criw Cymraeg Wythnos 7

This week we have had some very positive feedback from Mr Thompson regarding Criw Cymraeg, who has noticed how much more Welsh is being used around the school.

We are very pleased and agree that Welsh is definitely more widely used in Oldcastle.

The Criw Cymraeg have some exciting plans for the New Year and can’t wait to get started.

Our words of the week are;

Blwyddyn Newydd Da! Happy New Year!

https://flipgrid.com/s/adb61d148e29

Beth wyt ti’n hoffi? What do you like?

https://flipgrid.com/s/869197afb93e

STEM and Digital Days

Our next STEM and digital days will be held on the 1st two days of the new term in January. Monday 6th January will have a STEM focus and Tuesday 7th January will be digital. We have something so exciting for children to be involved with - we can't tell them about it yet but it is AMAZING!

Year 6 tasting session!

On Tuesday next week year 6 will be sampling chocolate truffles which are being made by 2 of our pupils. I'm sure year 6 are looking forward to this tasty treat!

Class 5JJ

In 2020 Miss James' year 5 class will be working collaboratively with Nant y Parc Primary School in Caerphilly on a reading project. Children will be video conferencing the school and reading through the same book as the children in year 5 of Nant y Parc. We are looking forward to seeing the results and discussing the detail from the book. The aim of the project is to encourage children to enjoy reading so that they understand the positive effect reading can have on well-being. We look forward to sharing more information with you in the new year once the project starts.

School Communication

Don't forget we use the School App to communicate with parents on a regular basis. Class messages are distributed in this way and if you are not signed onto the app you could be missing important messages about your child and the school. The School App is available in the App or Play stores. If you are not recieving specific messages regarding your child's year group please email us so that we may ensure you are allocated access. Please email us here.

Just One Tree Fundraiser

We have received the following letter from the Just One Tree charity.

Dear Oldcastle Primary School,

Thank you so much for supporting JUST ONE Tree.

Every £1 really does make a difference, so thank you, we really do appreciate it.

Your tree purchase will be supporting a reforestation project in one of the following countries:

Mozambique

Nepal

Haiti

Indonesia

Madagascar

Kenya

Because of you, 381 seeds will be chosen and planted by our partners in one of their nurseries. Once the next rainy season is upon us, your seedlings will be transported to their carefully selected new homes, where they will be planted and nurtured over the coming years. Your 381 trees will then start to remove roughly 4.69 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each and every year.

PTA

Don't forget the PTA are planning a school disco for Wednesday 18th December. Disco times will be:

• Nursery - 2.20pm to 3pm
• Reception - 3.15pm to 4pm
• Year 1 - 4.15pm to 5pm
• Year 2 and 3 – 5.15pm to 6pm
• Year 4, 5 and 6 – 6.15pm to 7pm

Please click here to register for the disco PTA Disco Tickets. The PTA are attempting to go paperless and are trialling a new approach with these discos. Paper copies of the ticket will not now be sent home. Once you have completed the form you will receive an email confirmation. This can be used as your child's ticket.

The PTA will also have a range of glitter tattoos available at the discos for a small charge as well as the the usual drinks, crisps, sweets and fruit.

If you have offered to help at a disco - thank you! Please make yourself known to whoever is on the entrance door or make your way to the back of the hall where refreshments are being sold.

Headteacher Award

A headteacher assembly was not held today.

Twitter

Don't forget we regularly use our Twitter account to let parents know what we have been up to in school. Please have a look @oldcastleschool

Admissions to Reception class

Bridgend County Borough Council have opened their application process for children joining reception class starting in September 2020. Applications are online - apply here.

Year 6 have been engineers this week and learning how to solve the problem of needing to build an irrigation system

without using fuels and pumps! Looks like the experiments were lots of fun.

New green screen!

Our caretaker is developing an exciting new project in our art room! Mr Jones is building us a new green screen! A green screen is used as a clear background for when children produce videos. Thank you Mr Jones!

Diary Dates

• Monday 16th December - Reception Christmas Concert - ticketed event at 9.30am and 2pm
• Wednesday 18th December - Juniors to visit Pantomime
• Wednesday 18th December - PTA Disco
• Friday 20th December - Term Ends
• Monday 6th January - Back to School
• Monday 6th January to Friday 17th January - 4C Swimming
• Monday 13th January to Friday 31st January - 4M Swimming
• Monday 3rd February to Friday 7th February - 5BJ Swimming
• Monday 10th February to Friday 14th February - 5JJ Swimming
• Monday 17th February to Friday 21st February - Half term
• Monday 24th February - Back to School
• Monday 24th February to Friday 28th February - 6C Swimming
• Monday 2nd March to Friday 6th March - 6E Swimming
• Monday 6th April to Friday 17th April - Easter holidays
• Monday 20th April - Back to school
• Monday 4th May - Inset Day
• Friday 8th May - Bank Holiday
• Monday 25th May to Friday 29th May - Half term
• Monday 1st June - Inset Day
• Tuesday 2nd June - Inset Day
• Friday 17th July - Term Ends
• Monday 20th July - Inset Day

Inset Days 2020

• Monday 4th May 2020
• Monday 1st and Tuesday 2nd June 2020
• Monday 20th July 2020