Week 34 - Friday 12th June 2020
Welcome to our newsletter for week 34 of the school year.
This week we have received guidance from the Welsh Government and Local Authority regarding the re-opening schools. You will have received an email from the school today with detailed information from the Director of Education about re-opening schools. Oldcastle Primary parents are being asking parents to complete a short google form to advise us whether your child will be returning to school prior to the summer holiday period. It is vitally important that we receive a completed form for every child in school to allow us to plan effectively and safely. A copy f the form can be completed via this week. Pupils Return to School Survey All responses should be submitted by Monday 15th June.
Further information on our re-opening plans, a copy of the Director of Educations letter and the guidance from Welsh Government have been uploaded to our website please click here for details.
As a school, we are committed to doing what is best for our pupils, staff and community. Thank you for your patience and support.
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, Nursery have continued to work incredibly hard and have impressed us all very much. In literacy, we have continued to learn how to read and write new phonic sounds and we have begun to write simple words. In maths, we have continued to make our own number sentences and looked at the properties of 2D shapes. In our Flipgrid challenges we have created beautiful colourful artwork to show each other and told our friends what colours we used in Welsh. We also read 'The Worrysaurus' and showed our friends what we would put in our happy tin to make us feel better if we were ever feeling worried. For World Oceans Day, we created fantastic sea creatures of our choice and then told our friends some facts we have learned about them. Thank you for another fantastic week of learning, we are so proud of you!
Reception
Reception have had another great week of learning at home. We have been using our money skills and using a variety of coins to buy ice-cream. They have made some fantastic underwater scenes and written some great stories alongside. Many have shown us their underwater scenes on the flip grid videos. We have been keeping on top of our sound practice and learning some vowel blends this week. We have been practising reading, re-visiting the red, tricky words. We have been reading and writing sentences, finding out which words and pictures do not fit. We have had great fun exploring capacity using a variety of containers.
Year 1
Year 1 children never fail to impress us with how well they respond to their challenges!
This week has been spent thinking about our World. It began with wonderful sentences written for World Oceans Day and from there we travelled into the rainforest where we’ve been inventing new verses for the song ‘Walking through the Jungle’. We’ve also been on a hunt in our own homes to see if we can find food that’s been grown fairly or sustainably. It’s wonderful to hear our children speaking so well about how we can all help the environment in so many ways. In Welsh, our clever children have been learning to say what garden creatures they like (or don’t like!) and if they’ve gobbled up all the delicious fruit and vegetable minibeasts that they’ve been busily creating, we must have the healthiest children in the school too! Our science task was to explain where animals get their food from and show how energy travels along a food chain. The children have shown a clear understanding of this and the variety of ways in which their ideas have been demonstrated is truly wonderful. Our maths skills continue to go from strength to strength. We can measure straight and wiggly lines now and we’ve continued to develop our understanding of place value in 2-digit numbers. We’re so happy to have been able to see all of your fantastic efforts once again this week. Keep it up Year 1 - you’re amazing!
Year 2
Year 2 have had another busy week of home learning and have continued to impress us with their engagement and enthusiasm.
In literacy children have been developing their reading and comprehension skills when finding out facts about sea creatures. They have also had the opportunity to listen to different stories linked to our ‘All about the Sea’ topic and discuss them with their families.
In numeracy children have been learning about the relationship between multiplication and division. They have used different methods to support this learning, such as repeated addition and arrays. We hope the children had fun challenging themselves using the Hit the Button game.
To celebrate World Oceans Day this week, children used facts about marine creatures to create some fantastic information posters. We have loved seeing the photographs on our Year 2 News slides.
Thank you to the pupils, and their families, for your continued effort. Keep up the excellent work!
Year 3
What a busy week we have had in our year 3 virtual classroom! Thank you, parents and children, for all of your hard work.
During literacy lessons, we identified lots of alternative vowel sounds and read a range of non-fiction texts. We found out what a publisher does, learned lots of new vocabulary and phrases and answered various questions based on what we had read.
Maths lessons were practical and fun! We used rulers, tape measures and weighing scales to estimate and then measure the length and weight of objects. We practised our 4 and 8 times tables to popular songs and completed some activities to make sure we can recall our times tables.
This week, we completed a super science lesson. It was all about metamorphosis and life cycles. We explored how the four seasons affect what happens within a plant’s life and how animals change and grow within their life cycle.
Year 4
Another great week completed by Year 4! We have loved seeing lots of you continue to hand in work. We would like to encourage everybody to continue to complete the online lessons and take pride in your work.
On Monday, it was World Oceans Day and the children were asked to research an aquatic creature of their choice and the ocean. They then had to create fact files based on their research. We were amazed at some of the unique and interesting creatures the children found. Our oceans are truly incredible.
In Maths this week, the children have continued to work extremely hard and have applied their skills and knowledge of mathematical concepts to word problems. Through a quiz assignment, the children have had to use a method of their choice to find the answers to each problem. Math Word Problems are important as they are a vital part of the Mathematics curriculum as they enhance mental skills, develop logical analysis and boost creative thinking.
In Literacy this week, the children have been learning about similes. Reminding themselves that similes are used in writing to compare things using as or like. They have been looking for similes in familiar texts around the home and even creating their own similes by completing their similes challenge!
Some of our favourite similes include;
‘A mouse is as white as a thick blanket of snow.’
‘The sea was as dark as the night sky in winter.’
We have also continued to look at Spy Master: First Blood, and we are enjoying listening to the adventures of our main character Jack Briars.
For our Thursday afternoon session, we continued to expand our knowledge of Spanish vocabulary. We found out about colours and food as well as looking over what we previously learnt in our “Far and Away” topic. The Year 4 teachers have loved watching the videos and have been so impressed with the children’s pronunciation. ¡Muy Bien!
Year 5
Another busy week in Year 5 agian this week.
In literacy this we have begun an exciting project, children were tasked to design an image that portrays how they see the world. Using the image they were then tasked to showcase their descriptive writing skills by writing a detailed description of their view on the world today. The final piece of the task was to record themselves with the image and read their writing piece.
Over the next couple of weeks our numeracy work will be focused on revisiting previously taught skills to develop a sound understanding. This week we have revisited factors and multiples and then used this knowledge to develop our knowledge on fractions.
Miss James and Miss Jones would like to thank the children for their effort with their poetry performances last week. We thoroughly enjoyed watching them.
Year 6
We’ve kept Year 6 busy again this week.
During our numeracy tasks, we have revised factors and multiples, this then fed into our work on fractions. We have been simplifying fractions, adding and subtracting fractions and calculating fractions of amounts. Wow!
We have started our Art and Literacy project this week, the children were asked to consider how they see the world. They were asked to design and draw an image of their world through a keyhole. Using their image they then created a piece of detailed descriptive writing, using the literacy skills that we have been practising. The final piece of the task was to video themselves with the image and read their piece of writing. We have been impressed with the results and look forward to hearing next weeks pieces of work.
We continued with our Health and Wellbeing project during our topic work and have also been studying Charles Darwin, his life and achievements, creating a timeline that we will use in a future task.
We would like to thank the children (and parents) for their continued efforts and hard work at this time.
As you can see, school may be shut but we are certainly busy in all year groups!
Sports Week Results
We have now had the opportunity to review all of our entries into the sports week we held last week and the results are as detailed below. Well done to everyone who took part in our sports week events and activities.
Cross Country Results
Children in years 3 to 6 took part in cross country events earlier in the year and we are pleased to let you know that Daniel from year 5 came first for Oldcastle Primary School. Well done Daniel and well done to everyone who took part in the events representing 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.
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
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 - Rhys T
- Reception Miss Walters - Heidi
- Reception Miss Williams - Oona
- Year 1 Mrs Morcom-Lewis - Aled
- Year 1 Miss Vaughan - Frankie
- Year 2 Mrs Roberts - Jorgie-Louise
- Year 2 Miss Lewis / Mrs Guy - Szymon
- Year 3 Brotherton / Mrs Burr - Mason
- Year 3 Miss Davies - Evan
- Year 4 Miss Radford / Miss Mullins - Ava
- Year 4 Miss Craven - Ava and Zac
- Year 5 Miss Jones - Evelyn
- Year 5 Miss James - Niamh
- Year 6 Mrs Coleman - Charlie
- Year 6 Mrs Evans - Oscar
- Miss Ellett Music - Heidi 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.