Week 31 - Friday 15th May 2020
Welcome to our newsletter for week 31 of the school year. We are now in week 8 of our school closure and once again we wanted to thank parents, pupils and staff for supporting the Oldcastle School Community. Teachers are so encouraged to receive an interaction from a pupil within their Google Classroom - we all love hearing about the learning and play that you have been doing so please do keep in touch whether it be via the Classroom, Twitter or our 'ask' email.
We, like other schools in Wales, are waiting for more information from Welsh Government and the Local Authority regarding any plans for re-opening Oldcastle. We want to reassure parents and pupils that we have a robust planning system in place for re-opening which has been scrutinised by school governors. When we have further information and guidance we will be sharing these with parents. Welsh Government guidance updated 15th May 2020 on Twitter. Welsh Government Decision Framework Document.
Mental Health Awareness Week - 18th to 24th May 2020
During this unprecedented time, it is now more important than every that we continue to support Mental Health Awareness Week. Our aim is that we can start conversations around mental health that can change and save lives. As a school community we hope that we can all join in and support - this year the theme for the week is Kindness.
One thing that we have seen all over the world is that kindness is prevailing in uncertain times. We have learnt that amid the fear, there is also community, support and hope. The added benefit of helping others is that it is good for our own mental health and well-being.
During the week we would love our pupils, parents and staff to get involved and support the campaign by sharing photos of how you have been kind. Kindness can be shown in a vast range of ways. You can be kind to yourself or others.
Here are a few suggestions:
- Keep connected with friends and family
- Make someone a cup of tea
- Play with your pet
- Take time to read a book
- Learn a new skill
- Show support to your local community
- Be active for 30 minutes
- Take part in a virtual quiz or singalong
We encourage all our pupils, parents and staff to get involved and support the Kindness theme for Mental Health Awareness Week. Please share photos with us through Google Classroom, Twitter or our ask@oldcastleprimary.co.uk and we look forward to producing a video of all the photos we receive to show what a fantastic community we have in Oldcastle Primary School.
Further information on Mental Health and Mental Health Awareness Week can be found on our website and via the Mental Health Foundation website.
Weekly Assembly
This weeks virtual assembly has been uploaded to our website and our You Tube channel, please click this link to view. Weekly Assembly We will also be recognising children through our weekly Headteacher's Awards - please scroll down to view who has been awarded a certificate in each class this week. Certificates have been emailed to all children who have received an award this week.
Google Classroom - Update for each year group
Nursery
We have been very busy again in nursery this week! We would like to thank all the children and their parents for their hard work and continued support.
This week we have started to learn about addition and focused on adding one more. We have even challenged ourselves to make our own number sentences! We have been learning to read and write more phonics this week and have continued to practise the ones we've learned so far. We have started to learn about the different seasons and we've been on a minibeast hunt.
In our Flipgrid tasks, we have shared with our friends our favourite story books and explained why we like them so much. We have also created our own special dens using our imagination and shown them to our friends.
We have loved seeing your enjoyment as you participate in all your learning and we miss you all very much!
Reception
This week Reception have been exploring the properties of water, they experimented with different ways to melt ice. We have loved watching the videos of your experiments, it was lovely to see how much the children enjoyed it.
In Maths, we have been sorting odd and even numbers and counting in 2s!
In Literacy, we have been learning about rhyming words and showing off our reading skills.
Another amazing week, thank you so much for all your interaction and engagement.
Year 1
Year 1 have been busy again this week, completing a range of activities within our ‘Mini Zoo’ topic. We have seen some particularly well-designed minibeast homes and lots of videos explaining just how important plants are to us and other animals.
In maths, we have seen fantastic work investigating ordinal numbers and literacy, skills when segmenting or blending words have continued to develop. Through Welsh activities, the children have been learning how to pronounce and write different fruits and we’ve been delighted to hear and see their amazing efforts. Ardderchog!
We really appreciate being able to view and share in everyone’s learning when work is uploaded to our Flipgrid and ASK email accounts and we can see everyone is working so hard across all areas of learning to produce the best work possible.
Well done Year 1 - you continue to impress us!
Year 2
Another fantastic week of home learning from Year 2!
This week in maths children have been working hard to round 2 digit numbers to the nearest 10. Children also had fun creating their own numbers lines using multiples of 10. We have seen some fantastic examples of this work through photographs uploaded to Google Classroom, and have been really impressed with how creative the children have been.
In literacy children have been learning about the effects that pollution can have on our oceans and the creatures that live in them. They also had the opportunity to create a sea creature by re-using plastic they had in their recycling bin at home. We would love it if you could upload some photographs of your creations to our news slides.
Thank you for all of your hard work and continued support. We hope you are all staying safe and looking after each other.
Year 3
Firstly, we would like to say a huge well done to everyone in year 3 for your perseverance in getting to grips with using Google Classroom for your learning. You are all doing a fantastic job - we are very proud of you!
Google Classroom has been very busy this week. During science lessons we've been learning all about life-cycles and in particular finding out about the life cycles of birds and bees. You’ve done a great job of sequencing and giving us lots of information after watching class videos.
During maths, we’ve returned to place value and you’ve been working on adding 10 and 100 to a range of numbers. Lots of you have completed our super challenges where you’ve been adding multiples of 100.
English work this week introduced our new story ‘The Pancake’ and looked at the use of personification. We’ve used our knowledge of syllables to work on spellings and answered questions about the text.
Our art lessons have seen lots of brilliant Lego drawings. We have loved watching your drawing skills develop!
Keep up the great work year 3!
Year 4
This week Year 4 have been very busy! Well done to all of you for continuing your passion for learning at home.
In Literacy the children have been revisiting paragraphing using TiTop, where writers create groups of sentences written about the same idea or topic. Writers use TiTop to show when they have changed time, place, topic or person.
We have been reading extracts from a familiar book and using our knowledge to highlight when and why the paragraph has been changed. It has been tricky to explain this through online learning but the children have persevered and completed tasks with success. Well done!
In Numeracy we have been working on balancing number sentences and looking at the use of brackets within calculations. We are so impressed that so many of you are taking on the challenges set and working very hard to calculate your answers.
In History we started a project to find information on Henry VIII wives with an extension challenge to learn the Horrible Histories song Divorced, Beheaded and Died. We have loved seeing your work and we can tell that you are really enjoying the topic!
We have had some exciting news this week! We have received permission by the authors of Spy Master: First Blood to share the book on Classroom with you. The book is set in the Tudor times and is full of adventure and intrigue. We can’t wait to read the book to you all!
Year 5
Another busy week again this week in year 5. We have thoroughly enjoyed looking through all the VE Day celebrations that took place. Thank you for sharing your celebrations with us.
In numeracy this week we have been investigating probability and developing our use of mathematical language to explain our knowledge of probability.
During literacy we recapped over SPAG, taking a session a day to master: adverbs, semicolons, sentence structure, spelling patterns, modal verbs. Each day the pupils have taken a google quiz, this has enabled us to see where they are in their learning journey. We also will be using these skills in the coming weeks for their new and exciting project that will be introduced very soon.
Our afternoons this week have been Science focused, pupils have been investigating inheritance and looking at both appearance and characteristics that might be shared.
We are looking forward to another busy week again next week!
Year 6
Another busy week in year 6. We’ve had a great time looking at all the fabulous VE Day celebrations that took place; we definitely have some budding chefs, bakers, quiz masters, interior designers and engineers in the making. Thank you to all those who shared their day with us.
We decided to use this week as another recap week, going back over previously learned skills: decimals, rounding, data investigations and finished the week off with some number puzzles, challenging the pupils reasoning and thinking skills (one of them took Mrs Coleman 27 attempts, she most definitely worked on her perseverance).
During literacy we recapped over SPAG, taking a session a day to master: adverbs, semi colons, sentence structure, spelling patterns, modal verbs. Each day the pupils have taken a google quiz, this has enabled us to see where they are in their learning journey. We also will be using these skills in the coming weeks for their new and exciting project that will be introduced very soon.
In topic, pupils have been looking at Inheritance, many of them have been embracing the afternoon sessions.
Another busy week coming up, recapping, mastering and developing skills, thank you to all those who are taking on the homeschool challenges and tasks.
As you can see, school may be shut but we are certainly busy in all year groups!
Children's Commissioner for Wales Survey
The Children's Commissioner for Wales are undertaking a survey on 'Coronavirus and Me' which is aimed at children. If you would like to participate please click this link Children's Survey
Minecraft your Museum! Competition
National Museum Wales is launching a Minecraft competition as to encourage young people to use their imaginations while in lockdown. More information here
Hay Festival Online
The Hay Festival are launching an online platform for schools next week. There will be lots of evetns, stories and resources that parents and children will find interesting. Please take look at the Hay Festival Digital website.
Our website - www.oldcastleprimary.co.uk
Our school website is constantly being updated to ensure parents and pupils have all the relevant information they need whilst we are closed. Recently the Kids Zone section has been updated with a range of fun games for children. Please take a look. Kids Zone
Thrive - emotional and social well being
Thrive activities are available for parents via our website. Thrive Activities
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'.
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
Headteacher's Awards
As we would normally do in school at the end of the week we held an assembly to celebrate all our children. We know all our children have been working hard with their parents at home. These are the children identified for awards this week.
- Nursery Miss Hughes - Gracie Rose
- Reception Miss Walters - Bette
- Reception Miss Williams - Archie
- Year 1 Mrs Morcom-Lewis - Lottie
- Year 1 Miss Vaughan - Samuel
- Year 2 Mrs Roberts - Jayden
- Year 2 Miss Lewis / Mrs Guy - Matthew
- Year 3 Brotherton / Mrs Burr - Freya
- Year 3 Miss Davies - Eliza
- Year 4 Miss Radford / Miss Mullins - Maisy
- Year 4 Miss Craven - Iestyn
- Year 5 Miss Jones - Seren
- Year 5 Miss James - Cairan
- Year 6 Mrs Coleman - Jack
- Year 6 Mrs Evans - Ella
- Miss Ellett Music - Bella Year 1
Helpful Links
Welsh Government - Latest Advice
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.