Week 1 - Friday 11th September 2020

Welcome to our weekly newsletter in week 1 of our new school year. It has been lovely to welcome pupils, parents and staff back to Oldcastle - we are extremely grateful for your support over the past few weeks.

You will hopefully have received communication from us over the past week detailing our access arrangements. Thank you for bearing with us whilst we ensure our route into and out of school is as safe as possible. We are confident that the current access arrangements are working well thanks to the support of our parents and carers.

We do ask that parents help us maintain welsh government guidance by :

• Parking and walking to school - the BCBC car parks are currently free to use

• Only 1 adult comes into the school yard at drop off and pick up

• Parents do not linger on the school premises - we encourage you to drop your child and leave

• All adults should adhere to the social distancing guidelines

It's not helpful that there are roadworks on St Marie Street at the current time but we hope that these will be completed shortly.

COVID Symptoms

Please remember if you or child presents any othe COVID symptoms you must self isolate and have a test.

• high temperature – this means you feel hot to touch on your chest or back (you do not need to measure your temperature);

• new, continuous cough – this means coughing a lot for more than an hour, or 3 or more coughing episodes in 24 hours (if you usually have a cough, it may be worse than usual);

• Loss or change to your sense of smell or taste – this means you've noticed you cannot smell or taste anything, or things smell or taste different to normal.

Your child will not be able to attend school if they have any of the above symptoms. Please also let us know if your child has been advised to have a test so that we can provide appropriate information to Public Health Wales if required.

P.E.

On the days when your child's class has P.E. they should wear their P.E. kit to school for the day instead of their uniform.. 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:

• Reception - Thursday

• Year 1 - Monday

• Year 2 - Friday

• Year 3 - Wednesday

• Year 4 - Tuesday

• Year 5 - Friday

• Year 6 - Thursday

Breakfast Club

Please see the information below from the Director of Education regarding Breakfast Clubs in primary schools. We will provide more information on the re-opening of the Breakfast Club in Oldcastle Primary once it has been confirmed.

"The local authority began piloting free breakfast provision in one primary school at the start of the term. Following the lessons learned from this pilot, the local authority is now planning to open all breakfast clubs as soon as possible from 14 September following the necessary risk assessments and control measures being put in place. As previously communicated, it may well be several weeks before all breakfast clubs are reopened.

We recognise that in schools, pupils have been placed in contact groups to ensure social distancing requirements are met and risk is minimised. However, this is much more difficult in breakfast clubs, with smaller numbers of staff and with pupils of mixed ages who may not be in the same contact group.

The safety of staff and pupils is always our highest priority. Individual schools will communicate the reopening of their breakfast clubs to parents and carers in due course and only when it is safe to do so."

School Savings Club

We hope to start running our school savings scheme again in the coming weeks. We will keep you posted.

Dinner Money System

There has been a problem with the catering teams dinner system this week and as a result the email you receive from Bridgend Council this afternoon will not be correct. We are hopeful that this will be rectified next week. We apologise for any inconvenience.

Water Bottle

Please can you ensure your child comes to school with a water bottle that is named. Children in years 3 - 6 will need to ensure they have sufficient supply for the day, either by bringing in a large bottle or two smaller bottles, this is due to accessibility to water supplies outside of their class bubble.