Week 21 - Friday 14th February 2020

Welcome to our newsletter for week 21 of the school year and the last week of term. We hope you enjoy the half term break and we look forward to welcoming children back to school on Monday 24th February at 8.55am.

Safer Internet Day competition

Oldcastle Primary School were delighted to be shortlisted and invited to attend the Welsh Government Safer Internet Day competition at Cardiff Odeon on Tuesday 11th February.

Children from a variety of year groups in the school produced videos to highlight the importance of staying safe online. One of our reception classes was shortlisted for the final of the competition.

Children in the Reception class produced a video based around the tv programme ‘Question Time’ and invited members of the audience (their class mates) to answer questions on how to stay safe online. Their message was simple and effective and involved ‘telling a grown up’ when online.

The group of children from Oldcastle Primary were delighted to experience the awards ceremony and see the reception children’s video on the big screen! The ceremony was attended by Kirsty Williams AM who congratulated all the school children that got through to the final of the competition.

We were thrilled to reach the final of the Safer Internet Day competition and children were excited to be part of the event in Cardiff. We believe it is extremely important to educate children in the importance of online safety and we felt that this competition was a great way to involve the whole school. Technology plays an important role in our school life and we feel it is important for pupils to understand how to look after themselves online and also understand what to do if something goes wrong. We are looking forward to being involved in the competition next academic year.

The Reception class video can be viewed on our website or via this link Reception Safer Internet Video

Safer Internet Day

The UK Safer Internet Centre have produced resources for parents regarding online safety. More information is available http://bit.ly/2OBVFmG

Thrive

Our Thrive practitioner, Miss Lewis and Miss Hodgson, will be available during our parent evenings. They will base themselves in our Thrive room which is located in the junior building. Please feel free to drop in and have a chat if you would like more information on Thrive.

Australia Fundraising

We are delighted to let you knwo that the up to date total for the Australia fundraising campaign initiated by Nimah from year 5 is £1099 !! The money has been split and donated to the Australian Red Cross and WIRES Animal Charity.

We are so proud of Niamh and her fundraising efforts, and we are pleased to learn that Niamh will receive a Mayor's Citizenship Award from the Mayor of Bridgend County Borough Council in March - well done Niamh for all your efforts fundraising to help the people and animals affected by the wild fires in Australia.

School Eisteddfod

Our school eisteddfod will take place on Monday 2nd March. Children will be working in their house colours to develop competition entries for handwriting, singing, poems and artwork after half term. Children may wear their house colours on Monday 2nd March.

The PTA have arranged a link with Cheeky Baby T-shorts again and parents may buy house colour t-shirts online. The t-shirts will then be delivered to school for distribution.

https://www.cheekybabytees.co.uk/collections/personalised-t-shirts/products/oldcastle-school-sports-day-t-shirts.

Please can parents add a note to the order with their child's class number so that the t-shirts may be distributed. T-shirts are £7.50, all orders should be completed online by 19th February. T-shirts will be handed out week beginning 24th February.

Please note that t-shirts are not compulsory and are parental choice.

Parents Evening - Reception to Year 6

The last date for booking parents evening is Monday 24th February - Parents evening for children in reception to year 6 will take place week beginning 24th February. Parents will have received an email from 'notifications@primarysite.net' with an invitation to book your timeslot for your child's class. If you have not received an email we advise that you initially check your 'junk' folder to see if the email have been received. If you have not received an email from us please contact the office and we will be able to book the appointment for you and check we have an up to date email address. Parents evening are an ideal opportunity to speak to your child's teacher who will provide an update on how your child is progressing in school in a range of areas.

School Swimming

Children in 6C will commence swimming lessons next week. Children will require swimming kit (costume, towel and goggles) and a packed lunch each day. Payment should be made via Parent Pay - the cost is £5.

• 6C - 24th February to 28th February
• 6E - 2nd March to 6th March

Criw Cymraeg

Oldcastle’s Criw Cymraeg entertained parents on Thursday afternoon with all the initiatives that they have been implementing in school. Criw Cymraeg are in charge of promoting Welsh throughout the school. They encourage their classmates to speak welsh and choose words and phrases of the week for the whole school to learn. Oldcastle are committed to improving the standards of welsh used throughout the school. We want to use welsh as much as possible throughout our lessons and make learning welsh fun and useful. We would like the children to feel confident that they are able to bring the language alive and use it in everyday situations. As a school we are working towards achieving the Cymraeg Campus status to develop welsh in English medium schools. Well done Criw Cymraeg and 4C for putting on a lovely performance and display.

Our Criw Cymraeg have put together an online notice board to inform parents and children - please have a look to see what welsh initiatives we have in place. Criw Cymraeg initiatives

STEM and Digital Days

On Monday 24th February we will be holding another STEM day. As part of our ongoing Space Quality Mark application this STEM focus is on Planets. Children throughout the school will focus on the Planets and how the solar system was formed. Each year group will focus on a different planet and undertake a variety of activities based around that planet.

During the digital day on Tuesday 25th February, children will focus on producing digital resources on the the topic 'What my community means to me'. The work that children produce will be entered into our Eisteddfod Digital competition.

Nut allergy information

We have a number of children in school who may suffer an allergic reaction to food An allergic reaction happens when a person comes in contact with something, such as a food, that their body thinks will be harmful for them. We often send messages home to parents to inform that we strive to be a nut free school. Please be mindful about including any nut products in your child's lunch box and help us be a nut free school. A parent from our school has written an open letter that we are sharing with you:

"It feels like a million reminders come out a week from school- I know it’s tough to keep on top if it all.

One I’d like to draw your attention to though though is the reminder not to send nuts/ products which may contain nuts into school. This isn’t about fussy eaters. Nuts can kill our little girl.

Sending her into school every day is scary. We all worry about them but this is different. Imagine wondering every day whether your child is going to come into contact with poison - that’s how it feels. If our child touches or eats nuts or even something another child who has eaten or touched nuts she would go into anaphylactic shock, which kills. Yes, she has epi pens in school but epi pens don’t cure it or stop a reaction.

So while I appreciate your child might only like certain sandwiches or you didn’t have time to get to the shop and trust me I get it, please just think of my little girl and the other children at school with allergies. We put our trust in you - other parents to be mindful of the danger our kids are in because of allergies.

Thank you everyone who takes the time to read this from a Mum and Dad."

What else you can do to help:

• Good hygiene – wash hands
• Help make sure your friends with allergies are safe
• Ask your friend about their allergy
• Don’t share your lunch or snacks

Public Health Advice

You will have heard a lot of information about the Covid-19 coronavirus in the news recently. As a school we receive advice from Public Health Wales who are coordinating with Public Health England to ensure organisations work together to prevent any spread of the virus. The school has robust risk management procedures in place and we are confident that we have the necessary plans in place should we require to implement them. If you would like more advice or support please visit the Public Health Wales website.

Lost Property

We have an enormous amount of lost property yet again. If your child has lost something in school please come and have a look in our lost property collection to see if you can find it. We have items including water bottles, lunch boxes, coats, school uniform, p.e. kit and umbrellas! We hope we can reunite some items with their owners.

Twitter

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

During a school assembly, the following headteacher awards were distributed. The theme for today was 'Good Behaviour'.

• Reception Miss Walters - Alicja
• Reception Miss Williams - Jacob
• Year 1 Miss Vaughan - Amelia
• Year 1 Mrs Morcom Lewis - Sophie
• Year 2 Miss Lewis / Mrs Guy -Carys
• Year 2 Mrs Roberts - Maggie
• Year 3 Mrs Brotherton / Mrs Burr - Darcey
• Year 3 Miss Davies - Leo
• Year 4 Miss Radford - Evie
• Year 4 Miss Craven - Elliot
• Year 5 Miss Jones - Finn
• Year 5 Miss James - Autumn
• Year 6 Mrs Coleman - Ecrin
• Year 6 Mrs Evans - Lilly-Marie

Admissions to Nursery

Applications for admission for full time nursery from September 2020, and part time from January or April 2021, are also open via Bridgend County Borough Council. Applications must be received by 27th March 2021. Apply here

Information below on some local February half term activities.

Diary Dates

• Monday 17th February to Friday 21st February - Half term
• Monday 24th February - Back to School
• Monday 24th February - STEM Day
• Monday 24th February - Parents Evening Week
• Monday 24th February to Friday 28th February - 6C Swimming
• Tuesday 25th February - Digital Day
• Wednesday 26th - School Savings Club starts back
• Sunday 1st March - Schools Cross Country Competition - years 3 to 6
• Monday 2nd March to Friday 6th March - 6E Swimming
• Tuesday 10th March - Reception trip to Cefn Mably
• 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
• Tuesday 9th June to Saturday 13th June - Year 6 residential trip
• 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