Week 27 - Friday 3rd April 2020

Welcome to our newsletter for week 27 of the school year. We hope that all parents and pupils are learning to adapt to this new way of living. Today is the last day of the Spring term and we would encourage pupils and parents to take time to relax and enjoy time away from learning.

The following letter has been sent to all parents this week:

As we approach the end of our second week working away from Oldcastle we wanted to thank you for all the hard work you are putting in at home keeping the children busy, safe and educated.

The following two weeks will be the Easter School break, during this time no new work will be uploaded to Google classroom and the sites will not be checked by staff. There is no expectation for children to tackle any school-based work during this time.

If you would like your child to continue to undertake some interesting activities during the Easter break there are a number of website links and resources that can be found on our home learning section on the website www.oldcastleprimary.co.uk and in google classrooms. After the holidays’ work will be uploaded to google classroom as normal.

We hope that families will take time over the school holiday period to relax and continue to enjoy spending time together.

The designated email address ask@oldcastleprimary.co.uk can still be used during the Easter holidays and we hope that parents will continue to keep in touch via this service.

Summer term starts on Monday 20th April when it is likely that the current closure arrangements will continue. Thank you for your support during this difficult time.

Weekly Assembly

During our closure period, Mr Thompson or Mrs Littlewood will hold a weekly virtual assembly as we would normally do in school. The videos are uploaded to our website and can be viewed here. Weekly Assembly We will also be recognising children through our weekly Headteacher's Awards - please scroll down to view. Certificates have been emailed to all children who have received an award this week.

Home Learning Resources / Activities for parents

Our website has been updated to include a range of resources that parents might find useful to keep children entertained. There are a range of activities from phonics sounds for nursery children, to daily videos from Steve Backshall, to Dance sessions with Oti Mabuse! If you come across any additional resources or activity sessions on the internet please let us know via ask@oldcastleprimary.co.uk and we will share them on our website for other parents to enjoy. Home Learning Activities

Google Classroom

Google Classroom is an excellent resource and is used throughout all year groups. Teachers are able to assign school work to children and pupils are able to communicate with their teacher. See below for some exciting things that have been happening throughout the school in the last week on Google Classroom.

If you or your child has not yet managed to log into their google Classroom please follow the instructions sent to parents via email. If you have not received the email please let us know via ask@oldcastleprimary.co.uk. Google Classrooms is available for children in all year groups and will allow children to view school work. If you have not received an email or have difficulty accessing the classroom please email us on ask@oldcastleprimary.co.uk

To log onto Google Classroom you do not need a Chromebook simply type 'Google Classroom' into an internet search engine and log in via the instructions sent by email.

Google Classroom through the years!

Nursery

This week in maths, we have been ordering numbers, practising our number formation and we went on a shape hunt in our houses! For literacy we did mark-making, practised writing our letters and enjoyed lots of story time videos from our teachers. We also enjoyed doing ‘Sticky Kids’at home and drawing self portraits.

Reception

Reception have been busy completing ‘Daily Challenges’ on google classroom. There are daily literacy, numeracy and a topic challenge. We have also been uploading Flipgrid videos which is a lovely way to keep touch and see each other. We’ve put rainbows in our windows to make people smile and we’ve been making junk models. Thank you so much for your engagement and support at this difficult time.

Year 1

This week, Year 1 have completed a range of creative and challenging activities. Through pictures and videos posted on our flipgrid, we have seen such effort and hard work put into all activities across the different areas of learning. Some of the activities this week included a ‘Three Little Pigs’ science investigation, a computational thinking challenge. In humanities children had to choose a continent we have not yet found, and retell a traditional tale from it. We’ve seen wonderful presentations of ideas through puppet shows, writing, role-play, model making and more! Year 1 are demonstrating their love for literacy and numeracy through their daily activities and we have loved seeing the progress being made! Well done for all of your hard work 1V and 1ML!

Year 2

A big thank you to all the Year 2 parents that are encouraging and helping our Year 2 children to complete their online activities. We can understand the problems this new way of learning may cause but also hope that you are trying to see the positives that this opportunity gives you. We have enjoyed reading and adding comments to the Year 2 News slides and look forward to reading more of your shared experiences as you add to the presentation.

Over the next two weeks, please try to enjoy some time away from 'school work' and whilst it won't be the Easter holidays that we are used to, it is important that we keep trying to be positive and stay safe in our homes and gardens.

Pasg Hapus, Happy Easter from the Year 2 Team.

Year 3

Year 3 have got off to a flying start with their school closure activities. Children have posted contributions in the form of photos, pictures and drawings of the various exciting things they've been doing. Year 3 teachers have been blown away by the quality of the work and with the enthusiasm the children have shown towards it. We have loved finding out about all your baking, gardening, keep fit ideas and best of all how you have been showing kindness and gratitude towards others by drawing rainbows, playing with younger brothers and sisters and even helping with chores. Well done year 3, keep up this amazing effort!

Year 4

The teachers in year 4 would like to say a huge well done to all those that have submitted work so far and are taking part in the activities we have set you. it has been lovely to see what you have been doing and we encourage parents to continue to support children accessing and completing tasks. Following the Easter break, we will continue to set a suggested weekly timetable for you to follow and there are plenty of additional bits of work and fun activities on the Year 4 classroom to do if you wish to complete anything extra.

We would like all children to submit at least one piece of work a week and to make sure they turn it in/ hand it in once it is completed so that we can have a look at it. We are currently finishing off our Far and Away topic and we are looking forward to starting our new topic, The Terrific Tudors, with you all. We hope you have a safe Easter holidays and that you all look after yourselves and your families.

Year 5

Over the past few weeks, we have been working towards our creative writing task. This week we have put our descriptive writing, characterisation and suspense writing skills into practice through writing our WW2 Evacuee stories.

Maths this week has been focusing on developing our area and perimeter skills. We began the week planning enclosures for dinosaurs (Miss James’ favourite) and then we looked at planning a vegetable patch - allocating the correct amount of ground depending on the needs of each vegetable.

Our afternoons this week have been Thrive based. The children have been encouraged to look at their perseverance skills and identify a skill that they want to either learn or continue to develop. Pupils have been tasked with completing a log on the task that they have chosen. Miss James has decided that she would like to perfect her cookie baking skills and Miss Jones has set herself a target to improve her fitness levels and healthy eating. We look forward to seeing what skills pupils have identified and the progress that they make.

Miss James was able to film a joke video for Reception classes with Miss Williams this week. Using this as inspiration, Miss James has challenged her class via her weekly flipgrid check ins to come up with their own jokes to tell one another. Thank you for the idea Reception! We look forward to you making us laugh!

Year 6

Another busy week for year 6 pupils. Over the past few weeks pupils have been working towards their descriptive writing task. This week pupils have been writing their WW2 stories, showcasing their suspense, descriptive writing and characterisation skills. Over the Easter break they will be recording themselves reading their stories onto flipgrid, to enable us to listen to the tone and expression intended in their story as well as allow pupils to develop their reading for fluency.

During Maths we decided to use this week as a recap week, allowing pupils to master their skills and develop their confidence in previously learned topics. Pupils became interior floor designers; calculating Area and Perimeter of a house, working out the costs for laying carpets, tiles, wood flooring as well as calculating the cost of skirting boards. After this they became secret shoppers, identifying what items were purchased. Towards the end of the week, pupils have revisited their negative number knowledge - a definite money themed week.

During such challenging times we wanted to use this time to encourage pupils to look at their perseverance skills and find a task to start, continue or indeed revisit. During our Thrive task, pupils have started to log a task they want to develop, Mrs Coleman is attempting to improve her bread making skills while Mrs Evans is going to persevere with her running and is going to set herself targets to improve her fitness levels and stamina, We look forward to seeing the personal progress made by the pupils.

As you can see, school may be shut but we are certainly busy in all year groups! The learning will continue after the Easter holidays.

Thrive - emotional and social well being

Thrive activities are available for parents via our website. Thrive Activities - Week 3

Keep in touch

We are keen to support parents and pupils as much as we can during our closure period so please do keep in touch with us as much as you can. We would love to hear from parents and children about how you are finding home learning, what activities you have been taking part in and please share any artwork or music with us.

You can share these via ask@oldcastleprimary.co.uk, our Twitter page @oldcastleschool, or our You Tube site 'Oldcastle Primary School'.

Headteacher's Awards

The following children were presented with a Headteachers Award during our virtual assembly today.

• Nursery Miss Hughes - Jake
• Reception Miss Walters - Zach
• Reception Miss Williams - Jack
• Year 1 Mrs Morcom-Lewis - Gethin
• Year 1 Miss Vaughan - Ava J
• Year 2 Mrs Roberts - Mya
• Year 2 Miss Lewis / Mrs Guy - Lewis
• Year 3 Brotherton / Mrs Burr - Owen
• Year 3 Miss Davies - Ocea
• Year 4 Miss Radford / Miss Mullins - Ava F
• Year 4 Miss Craven - Minh
• Year 5 Miss Jones - Dylan
• Year 5 Miss James - Lucy
• Year 6 Mrs Coleman - Ecrin
• Year 6 Mrs Evans - Reuben

Helpful Links

Bridgend County Borough Council - Latest Coronavirus Advice

Wellbeing Support from BCBC Educational Psychology Service

Public Health Wales - Latest Guidance

Bridgend Active Young People Department have some great resources to keep families active. Please have a look at Family Active Zone.