Week 17 - Friday 18th January 2019

Welcome to our newsletter for week 17 of our school term. It has been another busy week at Oldcastle. This week we launched our new parents communication app - The School App. We have decided to consolidate our communication methods through our website and the app will allow us to send you notifications through our website. You will also be able to view our website content through the app and view our Twitter feeds. To download the 'The School App' simply go to the Google Play or Apple App store and click on the free app to download. The app is provided by 'Primary Site' so please ensure you load the correct version. Once downloaded open the app and type in Oldcastle Primary School to choose our school. At the next stage click on the bell icon on the top right hand corner to select groups / class your child is in.

We will also be able to send emails to parents through our website where appropriate. Emails issued in this way will be sent from 'notifications@primarysite.net' so please add this user to your approved senders list to ensure the emails do not go into your junk folder.

Payments for school trips and other school activities will continue to be made through your Parent Pay account. If you would like further information or some help with the new app please contact the school office.

Class Newsletters

Class newsletters are now available to view on our website. The newsletters will provide you with information about what your child is doing in class this term. The newsletters can be viewed on our website - www.oldcastleprimary.co.uk under the Children / Class Pages section.

Google Parents Session

Thank you to those parents who came along to our Google parents session on Wednesday afternoon. It was useful to hear the views of parents and show how children use Google for Education in Oldcastle. Some of our year 6 children provided an excellent insight for parents and did a fantastic job showcasing Google. We received lovely feedback from parents regarding these year 6 children and how well they presented the use of Google in Oldcastle.

Competition

We are excited to let you know that we will shortly be changing the way in which we serve milk to our foundation phase children. We have been concerned about the amount of small plastic milk bottles that are being thrown away every day. On average we use 170 milk bottles every day and as you can imagine this provides an awful lot of waste plastic. We have purchased a refridgerated milk dispenser, reuseable cups and an industrial dishwasher. The refridgerated milk dispenser has an area on the front which allows us to include some artwork and we would like to open this up as a competition to children in school to come up with an appropriate design. Children should create an image which includes the word MILK. If children would like to enter the competition and see their design on the front of the dispenser they need to bring in their designs to school by 25th January.

Cross Country Competition

Don't forget there is a Cross Country competition for children in years 3 to 6 on Saturday. The competition will be held in Pencoed Comprehensive and will start at 10am. Registration will take place at 9.30am and children will need to arrive at this time if they wish to attend.

Headteacher Award

The following children were presented with a Headteachers Award during assembly today. This weeks theme is showing courage and perseverance to achieve.

• Year 1 Mrs Morcom-Lewis - Olly
• Year 1 Miss Mullins - Macy
• Year 2 Mrs Roberts - Sion
• Year 2 Mrs Evans - Whole Class
• Year 3 Miss Minkowski - Lily
• Year 3 Miss Davies - Lois
• Year 4 Miss Jones - Seren-Mai
• Year 4 Miss Craven - Libby
• Year 5 Mr Clements - Ashton
• Year 5 Miss James - Samuel
• Year 6 Mrs Coleman - Megan
• Year 6 Mrs Taylor-Jones - Matthew

Attendance of the Week

Class of the Week for the best attendance was awarded to 1M (99.2%) in Foundation Phase and 2R (99.3%) in Key Stage 2. Our whole school attendance target is 95.9% for the year. This week’s attendance was 96.3%.

Diary Dates

• 21st January - 4J swimming
• From Tuesday 22nd January to Friday 1st February - 4C swimming
• PTA Meeting - Wednesday 23rd January 9am
• Week beginning 4th February - 5C swimming
• Week beginning 11th February - 5B swimming
• Week beginning 18th February - 6T swimming
• Half term - 25th February to 1st March
• Back to School - Monday 4th March
• Week beginning 4th March - 6C swimming
• Friday 15th March - School Council Fundraiser 'Red Nose Day'
• Inset Day - Monday 22nd July 2019

Inset Days 2019/20

• Monday 4th November 2019
• Tuesday 5th November 2019
• Monday 1st and Tuesday 2nd June 2020
• Monday 20th July 2020