Week 32 - Friday 22nd May 2020

Welcome to our newsletter for week 32 of the school year. Thank you once again for all your support over the last week and also throughout our closure period. We know that many parents are juggling work commitments as well as trying to help children with their school work. We are proud of the way our children and families have pulled together in this unprecedented time - we understand the difficulties being faced. Don't forget we are here to support you so please do get in touch via ask@oldcastleprimary.co.uk if we can help in any way.

Next week is half term, and we hope that families take this time to relax and forget about school work. We look forward to hearing from our pupils when we start our new term on Monday 1st June.

Mental Health Awareness Week - 18th to 24th May 2020

Throughout the past week we have been focusing on Mental Heath Awareness and in particular the theme - Kindness. Thank you to everyone who got in touch to share photos or messages of acts of kindness - we hope you enjoy our short video which shows just how kindness has been shown by members of the Oldcastle community. Kindness Video by Oldcastle Primary School

Further information on Mental Health and Mental Health Awareness Week can be found on 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 are also 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

This week in Nursery we have been very busy again.

In literacy, we have continued to learn how to read and write new phonic sounds. In maths, we have continued to learn about addition and we've continued to practise writing number sentences. We learned about opposites and played an opposite matching game. We were also challenged to look at the clouds in the sky and create our own cloud inspired pictures.

In our Flipgrid challenges we showed our friend's number sentences we created independently and we showed our friend's different ways we could sort our toys. Thank you for another fantastic week of learning, we are so proud of you.

We hope you have a lovely half term!

Reception

Another busy week and another week of fantastic engagement and learning from Reception. We have made treasure maps, time capsules, and ordered objects by size. The children have discussed ways they can be kind to themselves and to others. We have seen how the children are continuing to improve their reading and writing skills through Flipgrid videos. We have also spoken about the things we are missing and what we will do when Lockdown is lifted, it was lovely to hear how many of the children are looking forward to coming back to school. Thank you so much for your continued support. Have a lovely Half Term!

Year 1

This week, once again, we have had some fantastic work uploaded through our Flipgrid and ask email accounts. We can see that Year 1 have enjoyed exploring our new topic book ‘What the Ladybird Heard on Holiday’ and have produced detailed geography work, where they’ve described clearly how a variety of animals suit their different habitats around the world. We have thoroughly enjoyed seeing work based on our ‘Mini Zoo’ topic too! For part of our Welsh work, we have read the story ‘Tedi Twt a Doli Glwt yn yr Ardd’. We practised saying ‘What is in the garden?’ so now we can give our wonderful salt dough minibeasts their name in Welsh too! For science, we’ve been learning how seeds spread in different ways and our creative children have made helicopters, parachutes and even exploded balloons to show how seeds can disperse. Brilliant! Our cosmic yoga and maths workouts have continued throughout the week alongside important daily numeracy and literacy skills activities.

Well done year 1, we're so impressed by how busy you have been! Have a lovely half term.

Year 2

Wow! another busy week in Year 2 with lots of challenging topics and activities. Well done to you all of you for trying your best and keeping positive.

Maths this week has seen Year 2 creating their own treasure map with a set of directions. They have been focusing on using mathematical vocabulary to describe position, direction and movement. We are loving the photos that are being uploaded.

In Literacy, children have been busy planning, writing and redrafting their own stories. They have even created their own story book cover like a real author/illustrator. We cannot wait to read them, so please upload them to the news slides.

To celebrate Mental Health Awareness Week, they have been busy filling in kindness diaries. Reflecting on what they have done each day to be kind to themselves and to others. Keep looking after each other and stay safe!

Have a lovely, well deserved half term break and be ready for another half term of challenge and fun, Year 2 Team.

Year 3

We would like to start by saying a huge thank you and well done for all your continued hard work, commitment and enthusiasm with google classroom and learning. You’re all doing a fantastic job and we are very proud of each and every one of you.

Year 3

We’ve had a very busy last week of term. During Humanities, we’ve been learning more about the Rainforest, in particular, what it is made up of and which animals live in each layer of the rainforest. You found out lots of information after watching class videos, and had lots of fun drawing and making animals out of different materials.

In Expressive Arts, you’ve started to learn a poem called “River” and you have been busy drawing pictures and writing poems that represent a river. We have absolutely loved watching you present these, and it has made us miss you even more!

English this week involved learning about antonyms and synonyms and lots of you completed all three challenges. We also introduced our new story “The Panther” and practised our spellings in an audio spelling test.

During Maths we have been looking at data handling and exploring different ways to present information, including bar graphs, pictograms and tally charts.

Well done year 3! Have a relaxing and fun-filled half term.

Year 4

Da iawn Blwyddyn 4! Another week of brilliant work. It has been lovely to see your faces on our Flipgrids and we have been so impressed with your fitness videos!

We have started to look at our new book Spy Master: First Blood and the children have made some fantastic predictions using the book’s blurb and their previous knowledge of Henry VIII and Tudor life.

In Numeracy, we have been revising areas that we have previously covered in school. Revisiting learning deepens understanding while reinforcing knowledge. We have covered topics such as time, multiplication, division and the inverse operation. The children have worked extremely hard to not only complete their learning in their books or slides, but also through the engagement of Flipgrid. It has been fantastic to see so many of Year 4 explaining mathematical concepts to members of their family. This is a skill that establishes connections between written and mental procedures. Da iawn Year 4!

In Literacy this week Year 4 have been revisiting time connectives and conjunctions, they have been using their prior knowledge to categorise different words into conjunctions and connectives. Following this they have been identifying them within a piece of writing, super work! After that they have even been extending and improving some given sentences using conjunctions such as; however, although and next. Can you find how many conjunctions and time connectives that have been used in this paragraph?

In Science, we have been looking at the categorisation of animals. Miss Craven set a tricky quiz with lots of animals that sounded like they could have been in other categories. Who knew a Mountain Chicken is actually an amphibian!?

This week we have encouraged the children to reflect on acts of kindness that they have done for others or themselves. So many of the children have shown or told us about their acts of kindness which makes us so proud.

Year 5

Another busy week in year 5 this week.

Our numeracy work this week has focused on revisiting the skills we have developed since the beginning of school closure, finishing the week off with a Prove it task challenging our reasoning and problem solving skills.

During Literacy we have continued to master our SPaG skills, recapping on nouns, colons, sentence structures and spelling patterns. We finished the week by looking at techniques to learn poetry and we look forward to seeing some wonderful poetry performance after half term.

Our afternoons this week have focused on developing our Welsh language skills where the children were tasked to write a descriptive paragraph of their town that they had previously designed.

As it is Mental Health Awareness Week, the children have been sharing pictures and videos of what they have been doing to keep their mental health healthy and how they’ve been kind to others. Miss James has been busy making cookies and delivering them to her family, as well as, sending postcards to friends and family that she misses. Miss Jones has been busy baking cakes for her family and taking time to enjoy walks with her dogs in the local area.

We hope you all enjoy a well earned rest over half term!

Year 6

Year 6 have continued to work hard this week, they deserve their half term break!

Our numeracy work this week has focused on revisiting time and calculating time zones across the world, we have also planned and budgeted a school trip having to include activities and meals with some great results.

During literacy we have continued to master our SPAG skills, recapping on nouns, colons, sentences and spelling patterns, completing activities and google quizzes to illustrate their learning. We finished the week by looking at techniques to learn poetry and we are looking forward to some fabulous poetry performances after half term.

Our topic work this week has focused on Welsh - Y Dref. Using prepositions and new learnt vocabulary the children were tasked with writing a description of a town that they designed.

The children have embraced our Mental Health Awareness Week and have been sharing photographs showing how they have been kind to themselves and their families.

Enjoy a well earned rest!

As you can see, school may be shut but we are certainly busy in all year groups!

Sports Day

We have some exciting plans for a virtual sports day following half term! More information when we return to school on Monday 1st June!

Brynteg - Year 6 transition information

Brynteg School has developed a video to help answer some of the questions that pupils and parents may have about the year 6 transition to Brynteg. Lovely to see that there were a few questions from Oldcastle pupils. Brynteg have also created a website specifically for year 6 transition - this will provide you with all the relevant information. To help our parents we have created a section on our website that will provide you with all the relevant links to the Brynteg information - as soon as we receive information from Brynteg we will email this to parents and also update our website section.. Brynteg Transition Information

Nursery children from September 2020

Following half term we will be creating a virtual tour video for our new nursery children and their parents. In normal circumstances we would invite parents and their children into school to have a tour of our nursery area. Unfortunately this is not possible, however we hope that the virtual tour will provide parents and their children with an opportunity to meet the staff and view the nursery setting. The local authority have informed us of our new starters and we are pleased to see there are 29 children who already have siblings in the school!

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. Home Learning Activities

Active Young People - Family Active Games

BCBC Active Young People Department have some fun family games available for children over the half term holiday. Follow this link to our website for further information. Family Active Games

School Improvements

We are continuing to make improvements to our school - these photos show the planters at the front of the building which have been spruced up with some fresh plants and the floor in our reception classroom which has been restored to the wood block flooring.

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 - Morgan and Tommy
• Reception Miss Walters - Faith
• Reception Miss Williams - Maisy
• Year 1 Mrs Morcom-Lewis - Amber
• Year 1 Miss Vaughan - Annabelle
• Year 2 Mrs Roberts - Florence
• Year 2 Miss Lewis / Mrs Guy - Laura
• Year 3 Brotherton / Mrs Burr - Emily
• Year 3 Miss Davies - Zoe
• Year 4 Miss Radford / Miss Mullins - Blair
• Year 4 Miss Craven - Summer
• Year 5 Miss Jones - Hannah
• Year 5 Miss James - Reuben
• Year 6 Mrs Coleman - Lily
• Year 6 Mrs Evans - Angelina
• Miss Ellett Music - Lewis Year 3

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.