Week 31 - Friday 17th May 2019

Welcome to our weekly newsletter. Thank you to Mrs Hales and Mrs Wallace for turning up to help with our Grounds Day. We were able to get around some of the areas this afternoon and make a small difference to the outside area. Well done year 5, 6 and after school club for helping too! We will arrange another Grounds Day shortly to continue with the good work. Following the removal of the sycamore tree we have a number of logs. If you are interested in a bag of logs please contact the school admin office.

Class Newsletters

Class newsletters are available to view on our website. Please follow this link. Class Newsletters Summer Term

School Council Sponsored Event

Following the success of our School Council sponsorship event last summer, the children have decided they would like to run the event once again. This year the School Council are raising funds towards making improvements to the internal and external areas of the canteen. It is our vision to make improvements to these areas to make it more inviting for children who have school dinners and sandwiches.

The sponsored event will take place week beginning 17th June. There are various activities that children may choose and they would welcome sponsorship to encourage them. Sponsorship forms and money need to be returned by Monday 17th June.

Activities include:

• Number of balls kicked in the goal in a minute
• Number of words read in a minute
• Number of words typed on a Chromebook in a minute
• Complete the hopscotch without missing a step
• Number of laps on the sprint track
• Use a mini cycle to go round the track (nursery only)

Sponsorship forms are available from School Council members or you may download a copy here.

Schools Mental Health Award

Oldcastle Primary School is proud to be co-hosting the launch of the School Mental Health Award in Wales. Working with The Carnegie Centre of Excellence for Mental Health at Leeds Beckett University the Award will be launched next week. We hope to use the quality mark as a catalyst to start the conversation on how we improve and support positive mental health in our school.

As a school we value the opportunity of working together with The Carnegie Centre of Excellence for Mental Health. We want to start a conversation that will tackle stigma and discrimination that is common with mental ill health and build on the excellent practice of schools to create a culture that enables and is empowering to both learners and staff mental wellbeing.

We look forward to keeping our parents and pupils up to date with information as we work towards achieving the award.

STEM Cluster Schools Learning Project

Year 5 and 6 are taking part in a Cluster Learning Project focusing on Science, Engineering, Technology and Maths (STEM). Oldcastle is one of 6 local primary schools taking part over a two week period (Week Beginning 20th May and Week Beginning 3rd June). All pupils will be involved in a range of fun, exciting and engaging activities based around the general theme of 'Poles Apart'. As well as what we have planned in schools, the pupils will have opportunities to take part in lessons run by staff from Brynteg as well as visit the comprehensive and carry out a science experiment in one of their science labs.

Next week we will have more in our Newsletter, we will ask the groups to write some quotes about what they have learned and share what we have done. We look forward to launching it to children in years 5 and 6 on Monday morning.

Changes to PE Kit - reminder

This term we will trial a new system for PE kit from nursery through to year 6. On the day your child's class has P.E. they will be allowed to wear their P.E. kit to school for the day. The aim is to increase the amount of activity time and make sure all children have their P.E. kit on the appropriate day. P.E. kit should consist of dark shorts / leggings / tracksuit and a white t-shirt. On top of the P.E. kit we recommend a school hoodie / jumper / cardigan, tracksuit and trainers. Please also remember that jewellery should not be worn for P.E - this includes earrings, necklaces, rings and hard headbands - and long hair should be tied back.

P.E. will be held on the following days for each year group:

• Nursery - Friday
• Reception - Monday
• Year 1 - Tuesday
• Year 2 - Thursday
• Year 3 - Friday
• Year 4 - Wednesday
• Year 5 - Tuesday
• Year 6 - Tuesday

Oldcastle Holiday Club

We are delighted to let you know that we are launching a children's holiday club this summer holidays. The holiday club will operate from Monday 22nd July to Friday 23rd August from 9am to 3.30pm. at a cost of £18 per day. We are pleased to offer add ons to the core time with a breakfast club from 8am to 9am at an additional cost of £4, and a late club pick up option upto 5.30pm for an additional cost of £7.50. Children from the age of 5 years to 12 years will be able to attend the club.

Children will be able to participate in a range of exciting sports, and arts and crafts activity sessions throughout the day provided by our qualified staff. The Club will operate in the main hall of the school and utilise other areas as required. Children will be provided with toast and fruit in the breakfast club and late club options. Children will need to bring a packed lunch and water to drink throughout the day. Please complete a booking form for each child.

Once your booking form has been received we will issue a Parent Pay invoice to you. Bookings and payment must be received by Friday 12th July. Discounts are available for sibling and weekly bookings.

Please contact the admin team on 01656 815790 or by email holidayclub@oldcastleprimary.co.uk if you have any questions.

To book a place please complete a copy of the Booking Form by clicking this link https://forms.gle/xyZoz9NNNj9gjBgK9 or by clicking on the link on our website https://bit.ly/2DKQFHa

Welsh National Tests

The National Procedural Test will take place over a number of dates: Year 5 - 21st May, Year 4 - 22nd May, Year 3- 23rd May, Year 6 - 3rd June, Year 2- 4th June.

PTA

The PTA are busy planning a couple of events over the coming months, we hope you can support them. More details will be announced on each event shortly. If you are able to help out at any of the PTA events please let the office know or contact the PTA via their Facebook page.

• Monday 20th May - PTA clothing collection - bags have been sent home please bring these back to school by 9am on Monday 20th May.
• Monday 10th June - PTA Cake Sale after school
• Saturday 22nd June - PTA Summer Fete
• Wednesday 10th and Thursday 11th July - School Disco

School Site

Please can we remind parents that access to the car park is not allowed at drop off time and pick up time. Cars must not be parked in the car park and we request that parents and children do not walk through the car park to access the school. Please can we also remind parents and grandparents that dogs are not allowed on school premises.

School Savings Club

Huge thanks to our Year 4 Super Saver Assistants - Joseph, Yuri, Seren and Freddie. This week they helped 77 children and staff save over £500. Don’t forget that your child can join anytime by filling in a membership form. The form can be collected from the office, Wednesday’s weekly collection or can be sent home with your child. The form is also available to download on our website. Thanks again for your support.

Nut free school

Reminder - as a school we strive to be 'nut free'. Please can we ask that food containing nuts is not included in children's lunch boxes. We have a number of children with an intolerance to nuts as well as a few children who have a severe allergy who may experience an anaphylactic shock as a result of coming into contact with nut products. Please can we ask that you consider the products being put into lunch boxes and check whether these items contain any form of nuts.

Twitter

Don't forget to follow us on Twitter - the page is regularly updated with news and activities that take place in school. @oldcastleschool

Headteacher Award

The following children were presented with a Headteachers Award during assembly today. This weeks theme is being kind.

• Reception Miss Walters - Amelia
• Reception Miss Williams - Sophie
• Year 1 Mrs Morcom-Lewis - Oliver
• Year 1 Miss Mullins - Harley
• Year 2 Mrs Roberts - Ella
• Year 2 Mrs Evans - Maisie
• Year 3 Miss Minkowski - Chloe
• Year 3 Miss Davies - Sebi
• Year 4 Miss Jones - Florence
• Year 4 Miss Craven - Tomasz
• Year 5 Mr McNally - Jessy
• Year 5 Miss James - Lilly Marie
• Year 6 Mrs Coleman - Abigail
• Year 6 Mrs Taylor-Jones - Matthew

Diary Dates

• Monday 20th May - PTA Clothing Collection
• Thursday 23rd May - Year 6 residential trip meeting at 5pm
• Half Term - Monday 27th May to Friday 31st May
• Monday 3rd June - Back to School
• Tuesday 4th June - PTA Meeting at 5pm
• Monday 10th June - PTA Cake Sale
• Wednesday 12th June to Friday 14th June - Year 6 residential trip
• Wednesday 19th June - Class and team photos
• Saturday 22nd June - PTA Summer Fete
• Friday 5th July - Sports Day years 1 to 6 at the Athletics track, Newbridge Fields
• Wednesday 10th July - PTA Disco
• Thursday 11th July - PTA Disco
• Friday 12th July - Sports Day Nursery and Reception at Bridgend Show
• Friday 12th July - whole school trip to Bridgend Show incorporating nursery and reception sports day
• Tuesday 16th July - Reception trip to Porthcawl
• Friday 19th July - School Term Ends
• 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