Week 33 - Friday 7th June 2019

Welcome to our weekly newsletter. We hope you enjoyed your half term holiday and children are looking forward to the 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.

STEM Cluster Schools Learning Project

Year 5 and 6 have had another fantastic week as part of the CLUSTER STEM Poles Apart project. Children have visited Brynteg School are taken part in a variety of science experiments! They have also took part u an egg-cellent challenge. Children had to design and create a parachute to carry an egg to the floor safely!

School Swimming Gala

Oldcastle competed in a school swimming gala on Thursday 6th June in Ynysawdre Swimming Pool. Well done to everyone that took part. The School came 2nd overall and 2nd in the year 3 / 4 and 5 / 6 relays. Well done to Grace, Amy, Will and Dan for winning their individual races and will represent the school in an event in July.

Oldcastle Holiday Club

Don't forget we are launching a children's holiday club this summer holiday. 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

School Savings Club

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. Please see below a message from the Credit Union regarding withdrawing savings.

We would like to thank the staff, children and families of Oldcastle for their continued support of the school savings scheme.

As we enter the summer term, we would like to give children the opportunity to withdraw from their savings. As always, we offer the option of cash (up to £100) and/or Bank Transfer. Your child does not have to withdraw any of their savings as we will continue to run the scheme until the end of term, before starting again in September.

Once the summer holidays begin, your child can pay in/withdraw money at our branch in Sarn or Bridgend but, please note, cash withdrawal requests may require 48 hours’ notice, so it’s always worth contacting the office by phone before visiting. The Sarn office can be contacted Monday to Friday on 01656 729912.

In order to make a withdrawal through school, we kindly ask for 1 weeks’ notice and require a completed withdrawal consent form. Withdrawal Forms are available here

For any queries regarding your child’s account, please contact me by email at damianf@blscu.co.uk or through the main Bridgend Lifesavers office.

Year 6 Residential

Year 6 will take part in their residential trip next week and messages have been sent home to parents with details of the week. Don't forget that children who are on residential need a packed lunch for Monday and need to meet at school at 7.45am. Children need to bring their swimming costume and towel for the Monday activity session.

Children who are not going on year 6 residential also have a range of activities planned and these details have been emailed to parents.

All children in year 6 are visiting Bridgend College on Tuesday to prepare food for a picnic in the afternoon. Children will be making a variety of picnic food including quiche, pizza, sausage rolls, dips and some yummy sweet treats! Children are asked to being in an empty lunch box to transport their picnic items to the fields.

We will update our Twitter account with photos from the exciting activities they take part in.

PTA

The PTA are busy planning a couple of events over the coming months, we hope you can support them. A newsletter has been produced and is available to view on our website. 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 10th June - PTA Cake Sale after school
• Saturday 22nd June - PTA Summer Fete
• Wednesday 10th and Thursday 11th July - School Disco

The PTA have made arrangements with Cheeky Baby Tees to enable parents to purchase t-shirts for sports day. Please click on the link for further information. If you place an order please add a note on your order with the class name. All t-shirts will be delivered to school and distributed by the PTA. Please note t-shirts from Cheeky Baby Tees are not compulsory for sports days.

PTA POSTER DESIGN COMPETITION!

The PTA would like to invite all children to design an eye-catching A4 poster advertising the Oldcastle Summer Fete. The poster needs to include the date and time - 22nd June 11am to 3pm. The children can use any materials or processes to create their design. The children need to return their entries to school after Half Term on Monday 3rd June.

The PTA will judge the entries and announce the winner by Monday 10th June. The PTA will use the winning design on our FaceBook group - https://www.facebook.com/oldcastleprimarypta/ and we’ll also make copies to advertise on the school notice-boards.

The prize will be a goodie bag of art and craft materials. We’ll also display the entries in the school hall during the fete.

Twitter

Oldcastle Primary School are on Twitter - the page is regularly updated with news and activities that take place in school. @oldcastleschool

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

Headteacher Award

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

• Reception Miss Walters - Ava
• Reception Miss Williams - Henry
• Year 1 Mrs Morcom-Lewis - Lewis
• Year 1 Miss Mullins - Darcey
• Year 2 Mrs Roberts - Ella
• Year 2 Mrs Evans - Freya
• Year 3 Miss Minkowski - Amelia
• Year 3 Miss Davies - Lois
• Year 4 Miss Jones - Amy
• Year 4 Miss Craven - Taylor
• Year 5 Mr McNally - Samuel
• Year 5 Miss James - Dextor
• Year 6 Mrs Coleman - Tomos
• Year 6 Mrs Taylor-Jones - Matthew

Class of the week for the best attendance was awarded to 2R (96.1%) in Foundation Phase and 6TJ (96.2%) in Key Stage 2. Our whole school attendance target is 93.2% for the year. This week's attendance was 95.4%.

Diary Dates

• Monday 10th June - PTA Cake Sale
• Wednesday 12th June to Friday 14th June - Year 6 residential trip
• Tuesday 18th June - Year 5 trip to Ogmore by Sea
• Wednesday 19th June - Class and team photos
• Thursday 20th June - Year 1 trip to Mountain View Ranch
• Saturday 22nd June - PTA Summer Fete
• Monday 1st July - Rest Bay Tag Rugby
• Thursday 4th July - Year 6 Brynteg Transition Day
• Thursday 4th July - Move up day - children meet their teacher for next school year
• Friday 5th July - Sports Day years 1 to 6 at the Athletics track, Newbridge Fields
• Tuesday 9th July - Year 6 Robin Hood Production at 1.30pm and 6pm
• 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 Seaquest, Porthcawl
• Thursday 18th July - Year 6 Leavers Assembly
• 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