Week 36 - Friday 28th June 2019

Welcome to our weekly newsletter.

School Savings Club

We held a special assembly today to recognise our committed school savers. Two children in school have saved every week that the school savings club has run - Da Iawn! More details below of who received an award today. We currently have 253 children enrolled in the Credit Union School savings scheme and we are keen to get as many children as possible signed up to enjoy the benefits of savings regularly.

PTA Summer fete

The PTA would like to thank all parents that supported the school fete last Saturday. The event was a great success and the PTA have reported that they raised over £700 towards the refurbishment of the canteen. Well done to the PTA on a successful event and thank you to parents and staff who helped out on the day of the event.

Bridgend Show

Following the success of last years event, we plan to hold a whole school trip to Bridgend Show on Friday 12th July. There will be no charge for the trip and all children from nursery to year 6 will be part of the trip.

All children will need to wear school uniform and wear weather appropriate clothing / shoes. Children will need to bring a bottle of water, a morning snack and a packed lunch. If your child has free school meals and you wish a packed lunch to be provided please let the office know at least 3 days before the trip. Please speak to your class teacher is you are able to help on the day, all parent helper places are allocated randomly. Nursery children will need to be accompanied by a parent or guardian.

Our year 6 children will have a range of products available to purchase as part of their Enterprise Project. We look forward to providing you with more information soon.

As a school we are keen to support the show and have been looking to develop as many different entries to the show as possible. Please have a look at the Schedule and see if you can help your child with any of the entries. The schedule can be viewed here.

P.E. Kit

Throughout the last term we trialled a new way of managing P.E. kit by allowing children to wear their sports kit into school on the day that they have P.E. We are now evaluating this approach and would welcome feedback from children, parents and staff. Please help us by completing a short form. Thank you for your help - we will let you know the outcome of the review via our weekly newsletter. The form can be completed here. Please also ask your child for their opinions and complete as a child.

Sports Day

Sports day for children in years 1 to 6 will take place on Friday 5th July and parents are invited to come along and watch the events. The events will start at 10am and we hope they will be completed by 3pm. We are delighted to let you know that we will have an Olympic medal winner attend the morning session. Persimmon Homes have arranged for Dani Rowe, Olympic track cyclist to come and support our event. Dani will be taking part in our event warm up, and help with events throughout the morning. We will also be able to see her winning Gold medal from the London 2012. We are excited to have an Olympic medal winner at our sports day this year.

Nursery and reception children will take part in their sports day on 12th July when we visit the Bridgend Show. The event will take place in the main arena and parents and grandparents are welcome to attend.

New class arrangements September 2019

Next Thursday children will be visiting their new classroom and meeting their teacher for September 2019. Children will be able to find out the location of their new classroom as well as entry door arrangements for the first day back in September.

In September we will arrange an open meeting for parents to come along and meet your child's new teacher and find out what they will be doing in their new year group. We will let you know a date once the school returns in September.

Year 6 children will be visiting Brynteg on Thursday as part of their transition day.

New class arrangements September 2019

This week Bridgend Council organised a Festival of Learning to enable schools to share new and innovative learning and teaching techniques. Some members of our School Council, newspaper team and digital leaders visited the exhibition on Wednesday and some members of the Eco Committee took part in activity sessions. Oldcastle were part of a Cluster Voice display showcasing work on wellbeing in schools. We hope to share more information on this project with you in the future.

Homegrown potatoes!

Our year 1 children and teachers harvested an amazing crop of potatoes this week! Well done to all the children and staff who have looked after the crop over the last few months. The children washed the potatoes and they were prepared into hassleback potatoes which tasted wonderful.

After School and Late Clubs

Please can we remind parents that cancellations for after school and late clubs will be charged if cancellation is not received by 10am on the day of the cancellation.

General Notices

After School and Late Clubs - Please can we remind parents that cancellations for after school and late clubs will be charged if cancellation is not received by 10am on the day of the cancellation.

Collection of children - if you make arrangements for another parents to collect your child please ensure that your child's teacher or the admin team are informed.

Use of car park - access to the car park is not allowed during the hours of 8.30am to 3.30pm

Dogs - please note that dogs are not allowed on any part of the school site.

Oldcastle Holiday Club

Places are filling up fast in our children's summer holiday club - if you wish to make a booking we would suggest making the booking as soon as possible. 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

Twitter

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

Designed to Smile

Designed to Smile is a national child oral health programme in Wales and is turning 10 in September 2019. The following is a message from the Designed to Smile team:

"We are celebrating with a National Designed to Smile week 16th-20th September. We are asking children across Wales to design a birthday card for Dewi, Designed to Smile’s mascot, to celebrate his 10th birthday. We would like all schools and nurseries to submit entries to the national competition. The deadline is 4th October 2019. Please follow this link to enter the competition. Designed to Smile Competition

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. For example Nutella or peanut butter etc.

Headteacher Award

Today's assembly recognised our regular school savers. We have a fantastic 253 children enrolled on our saving scheme. Well done to everyone who received a certificate and saves regularly. A particular congratulations to 2 pupils who received a Gold award today for 100% attendance at school savings club.

Gold

• Elin
• Thomas

Silver

• Ava
• India
• Scarlett
• Seren
• Amelia
• Angelina
• Ava
• Estelle
• Lily
• Louis
• Oscar
• Scarlett

Bronze

• Ioan
• Iris
• Isaac
• Isabel
• Zac
• Aled
• Fredddie
• Imogen
• Lottie
• Heidi
• Nell

Diary Dates

• 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 at 1pm
• 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

Bridgend Council term dates can viewed here.