Week 37 - Friday 3rd July 2020

What an exciting week we've had as we welcomed some of our pupils to school for their Check In, Catch Up and Prepare Days. There were lots of smiling faces in our classrooms even if it is all a bit strange at the moment. Thank you to parents who came to the school and followed our one way direction route around the external area of the school.

We hope you enjoyed seeing parts of the school you don't normally visit! We look forward to seeing more of our pupils return next week.

Our hub school for key workers has been busy this week - please remember bookings for hub school are managed by Bridgend County Borough Council.

Here is a reminder of the Return to School Virtual Tour

As a school, we have are extremely grateful for the continued support we receive from parents and carers.

Class Teachers from September 2020

Parents in nursery to year 5 will have received an email today outlining the class teaching arrangements from September. In normal circumstances, children would find out who their new class teacher is by attending a session in their new classroom. Unfortunately we are not able to do this at the present time however each class teacher has recorded a welcome message. Please view our Welcome to your Class video. Please don't worry if you or your child is unsure where their new classroom is - we will make sure that staff members are on hand in September. At this stage we are waiting for guidance regarding returning to school in September but please rest assured we will inform parents as soon as we are able to.

Weekly Assembly

This weeks assembly focused on the launch of our class teachers from September and can be viewed here. Class Teacher Video

Chromebook Return

As we near the end of the school year we are required to collect the chromebooks that were lent to parents and pupils at the start of the school closure period.

In order to aid social distancing measures we have arranged a rota for dropping off the chromebooks. When the chromebook is returned we will need to update our records and confirm the serial number of the item on our documentation.

A member of staff will be situated in the car park to collect the chromebooks, parents may enter the car park on foot via South Street. Please ensure that the chromebook and charger are returned to school.

If you would like to drop off the chromebook with your child’s teacher on their Catch Up day please contact us by email so we can ensure a member of staff is available to sign the device back into school.

• Year 6 - Monday 13th July between 9am and 10.30am
• Year 5 - Monday 13th July between 1.30pm and 3pm
• Year 4 - Tuesday 14th July between 9am and 10.30am
• Year 3 - Tuesday 14th July between 1.30pm and 3pm
• Year 2, Year 1 and Reception - Wednesday 15th July between 9am and 10.30am

We will also be able to offer a late evening drop off for parents on Tuesday between 4pm and 6pm however this is by prior arrangement only. Please email us to book this slot.

Email: ask@oldcastleprimary.co.uk

Home Learning Update

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. We also showed our friends our fantastic name writing. In maths, we revised number sentences, and we practised our number formation.

In our Flipgrid challenges, we showed our friends how we wash our hands thoroughly whilst singing 'Twinkle twinkle'. We also showed our friends something important to us in 'Show and Tell' and had a story from Mrs Woszczycki.

Thank you for another fantastic week of learning; we are all so proud of you!

Reception

Reception have had a very exciting week this week as we have welcomed many children back into the classroom. The response was positive from both parents and children, and children benefited from seeing some of their friends and other familiar faces. Those who came into school said that they had enjoyed even though things were a bit different. Alongside many children returning to school for a visit we have also completed some fun learning activities in Google Classroom. Children have continued to learn new sound patterns and have used these sounds in reading and writing words and sentences. Children have re-capped previous maths activities including shape. symmetry, number problems and designing their own calculations. We have concentrated on asking and answering questions and using our imaginations. They have designed and painted sea creatures and participated with fun yoga activities.

Year 1

It has been so lovely this week, to share time with some of our children, back in the classroom, after what feels like such a long time! It hasn’t stopped so many of them being busy though, as we have also continued to receive amazing work online. In maths, we have looked at finding halves and quarters of amounts and have added even bigger numbers! In English, it has been wonderful to review some of the most memorable parts of our year when our children have shared some fantastic sentences about their favourite memories of year 1. They were lovely to read. Through Welsh we looked at the question ‘Beth sy’n bod?’ and wrote phrases based on our Welsh story of the week. We have seen some wonderful work based on our book ‘Tidy’. This included organising sensible and silly countryside rules and sentences about when we have been responsible! Another artistic activity, based on our book which we have been so impressed by is the creative fingerprint or collage trees made for Pete the Badger. We have enjoyed all of your work sent to Flipgrid and through the ASK email, keep it up year 1 and we’re looking forward to catching up with more of you next week!

Year 2

Another busy week for Year 2! This week saw the start of our ‘check in and catch up’ days and it was lovely to welcome some of you back into our classrooms. We are so proud of the way in which you adapted to our new routine and look forward to seeing you again soon.

As part of our home learning children have been finding out about lighthouses this week. Children have read both fiction and non-fiction texts, and have also had the opportunity to design and create their own lighthouses.

In maths, children have explored different methods to use when adding and subtracting pairs of two digit numbers. They have also investigated number bonds to 100 and found pairs of numbers that make this total.

This week we have encouraged Year 2 pupils to think about what makes them amazing! Children have continued to impress us since they began their home learning, and we wanted them to be able to recognise and celebrate their achievements.

Our pupils have also had fun creating a bubble blower, and have practised discussing clothes and the weather in Welsh.

Thank you for another fantastic week of learning!

Year 3

This week, Year 3 teachers have had the pleasure of welcoming a number of children back into school. It was lovely to catch up and we were all amazed to see how much the children had grown!

Children at home have been very busy and have shared some of their work which is centred around Roahl Dahl’s popular book ‘George’s Marvellous Medicine’. We’ve seen some colourful, eye-catching book cover designs, some very organised story boards and some bold ‘handling medicines’ safety posters.

The children have also had fun completing some maths challenges linked to the fabulous story. They’ve been exploring number and buying and measuring ingredients for making medicine potions.

To conclude our work on rainforests, the children have been given a selection of activities to choose from including; letter, poem and story writing, rainforest dance choreographing and music compositions as well as designing maps and wild and wonderful rainforest creatures!

If that’s not enough, Miss.Ellett also challenged them to make their own instruments.

As always, Year 3 staff are very grateful for the effort the children and parents put into completing the activities so enthusiastically. So it’s another big ‘thank you’ from us all!

Year 4

This week Year 4 have started to come back to school and the teachers have loved catching up and checking in with you all. There has still been lots of learning being done at home, great work!

In Literacy the children have been learning about biographies and we will be comparing them to the autobiographies later on in the term. Year 4 have been reading some very interesting biographies and completing quizzes with excellent understanding. We have also been continuing to read our book Spy Master.

In Maths we have been consolidating our multiplication skills and completing some mathematical quizzes. Year 4 have even used their budgeting skills to plan a holiday! We have asked them to think about planning a holiday for two people using all four mathematical operations. Well done!

Through our Topic lessons Year 4 have become keen Historians by creating a Tudor timeline which includes all the important events that have happened during the Tudor period. In Science sessions we have been continuing to learn about animals and their habitats. The children have been researching a variety of habitats and learning about their characteristics.

Year 5

We’ve been busy again in Year 5 this week.

In maths, pupils have been developing their coordinate skills. Pupils have completed their coordinate challenges and have been self assessing their work and identifying any areas that they may find difficult.

We have moved on from our keyhole theme this week. We would like to thank the children for their effort during the project, Miss James and Miss Jones thoroughly enjoyed hearing the descriptions over the three weeks. This week we have begun recapping on the features of a biography and have started to plan out our own biographies on Charles Darwin. This will continue into next week and during the final week of term, pupils will be writing their own autobiography to be handed into their new teacher next year. How exciting!

Once again, our afternoons have focused on developing the pupils welsh language skills. Miss James and Miss Jones are extremely proud with the effort that the pupils have gone to in order to develop their ability to converse through the medium of Welsh. Keep it up!

Year 6

It’s been a great week catching up with pupils who were in their bubbles this week. It was so nice to be able to speak to them in person, find out how they were and helping them with the first stages of their transition.

In maths pupils have been recapping coordinates and scale factors. Pupils have had the opportunity to self mark their work, enabling them to have instant feedback on their progress. We are pleased to say they were all very successful.

Year 6 have completed their final Keyhole oracy and writing task. They were challenged to describe the scene through the keyhole of the future. We have had some interesting takes on how life will change : Mars trips, mood changing clothes and much more. I look forward to seeing what the future holds.

Whilst in school, year 6 have been working on transition - discussing hopes and fears, creating questions for Q and A being held next week as well as looking through the dedicated year 7 website, finding out about the lockers, lessons and most importantly what food is on offer. Next session we will be working on the map of the school and timetabling though fun and interactive tasks.

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

School Savings Club

Please see below a message from the Credit Union regarding the School Savings Scheme: Everyone at Bridgend Lifesavers Credit Union misses seeing you in school but we hope you are keeping well. We’d like to reassure you that we are still open for deposits and withdrawals, which can be arranged by calling our office on 01656 729912 (9-5pm). If you have any specific queries about your school savings, I can be contacted directly on damianf@blscu.co.uk. We look forward to seeing you all again soon!

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'.

Headteacher's Awards

A headteachers award assembly was not held this week as we launched our new class teachers in our weekly assembly.

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.