Week 37 - Friday 9th July 2021

New Headteacher

We are delighted to confirm with parents that Mrs Ceri Littlewood has been appointed headteacher at Oldcastle Primary School. Mrs Littlewood was appointed following a recruitment process led by the school governors recruitment panel, the school challenge advisor and a representative from the local authority education department.

Mrs Littlewood says - I am absolutely delighted and honoured to be appointed the Headteacher of Oldcastle Primary. To work with such an amazing set of pupils, staff, parents and governors is a real privilege. I am extremely grateful for all the support and encouragement that I have received, particularly over the last six months and I am very excited for the future to be able to able to continue to spread a little more magic

Mad Hatters Tea Party

Wow what a day we have had! As many children have said today 'it's been the best day ever!'. We are so pleased to have been able to create a magical day for our children - this has been possible thanks to our wonderful PTA. The PTA wanted to do something special for the children and as a school we were more than happy to support this. The PTA have never faltered when we told them the event had to be within current covid restrictions, some of which changed throughout their planning. Team Oldcastle can't thank the PTA enough for providing such a wonderful day.

Our children thoroughly enjoyed the day with entertainment from Simon Sparkles, a juggling stilt walker, music from Martha and a wonderful tea party provided by our fantastic canteen staff.

All in all it has been a fabulous day. We have so many photos from the day that we would love to share with you. Here's a taster - we will share more with you next week.

After School Club

After school club bookings for September are now closed. We will be working through the bookings and will advise if you have been successful with a booking by the end of next week.

Breakfast Club

The Breakfast club booking form has now closed and we aim to inform parents by the end of term if we can accept all bookings.

End of term arrangements

End of year reports for children will be sent home to parents on Monday 12th July. We will be sending a google form link to parents following the distribution of the reports to parents to allow you the opportunity to feed back to teachers and senior leaders.

Children will be meeting their new class teacher on their 'Bump Up Day' on Tuesday 13th July, and we will email parents on 13th July with details of your child's class teacher for the next school year.

Year 6 children have found out today which form class they will be in when they start Brynteg in September. Brynteg have provided a link to a video which introduces the form teachers. This can be viewed via the link below.

School Savings Club

School savings club will operate on Wednesday 14th July. This will be the last savings club in school until September.

New school year - September 2021

At the start of the new school year we have an inset day planned for Friday 3rd September. Children will return to school on Monday 6th September.

We previously notified you of our inset days for the whole of the next year (these are detailed below), and as a reminder half term will take place from Monday 25th October to Friday 29th October. An inset day is arranged for Monday 1st November so children will return to school on Tuesday 2nd November.

Please note we have an additional inset day planned for 26th April, this is due to a change to school staff working arrangements in September.

Art work

Year 2 have created a collaborative piece of art today based around the book The Dot and designed with the artist, Kandinsky in mind. They thoroughly enjoyed using the pastels to create their own Dot.

New email address

The local authority has changed school email addresses recently. Our new Admin email address is now admin@oldcastleps.bridgend.cymru. Our ask@oldcastleprimary.co.uk is also available for parents.

Inset Days

Inset days for the school year have been approved and these are:

• Monday 19th July 2021

• Tuesday 20th July 2021

We ask that you refresh yourself with the following information regarding Covid and inform us if your child is having a covid test - please call or email ask@oldcastleprimary.co.uk

If your child is off school due to a member of your household having a Covid test please ensure that you let us know when you report their absence.

The main symptoms of coronavirus are:

• a high temperature

• a new, continuous cough – this means coughing a lot, for more than an hour, or 3 or more coughing episodes in 24 hours

• a loss or change to sense of smell or taste – this means they cannot smell or taste anything, or things smell or taste different to normal

What to do if your child has symptoms. If your child has any of the main symptoms of coronavirus:

1.Get a test to check if they have coronavirus as soon as possible.

2.Stay at home and do not have visitors until you get the test result – only leave your home to have a test.

Anyone you live with, and anyone in your support bubble, must also stay at home until you get the result.

You can now also book a test if you feel unwell but don’t have one of the three main symptoms of coronavirus. Examples of other symptoms could include a sore throat, headache, nausea, diarrhoea and vomiting.

When you get tested for other symptoms, you don’t have to self-isolate while you wait for your result. You will only have to self-isolate if your test comes back positive.

P.E. Lessons

P.E. lessons this term will take place on the following days. Children attending school should wear their P.E. kit to school on the day of their lesson.

• Nursery - Friday

• Reception - Thursday

• Year 1 - Monday

• Year 2 - Tuesday

• Year 3 - Wednesday

• Year 4 - Tuesday

• Year 5 - Friday

• Year 6 - Thursday

Inset days from September 2021

Inset days from September 2021 have been confirmed and are as follows:

• 2nd and 3rd September

• 1st November

• 18th February

• 25th April

• 20th June