Miss Hodgson led the whole school assembly today and talked to the children about behaviour and expectations. Below is a copy of the assembly for parents to talk to their children about.

Thank you

We wanted to say thank you to our parents and pupils for following the uniform information we sent out recently.  Children looked very smart in the assembly today, wearing the appropriate school uniform. Here's a reminder of the uniform information we recently sent.

School Uniform

Pupils may wear the following school uniform:

• Grey or Black trousers, skirt or pinafore dress;

• Red or white polo shirts;

• Blue jumpers, cardigans or hoodies;

• In the Summer months, grey shorts or blue check dresses may be worn.

(Clothing items emblazoned with the school logo are available to purchase locally if you wish but are not required)

Pupils may wear dark blue, grey or black socks or tights.  White socks may be worn in the Summer. 

Dark-coloured school shoes should be worn.  

Boots, backless sandals or trainers are discouraged (trainers may be worn for PE and sports activities).

PE Kit

Oldcastle Primary School's PE uniform is dark shorts, a white t-shirt and black plimsolls or trainers.  

Tracksuits may be worn in the winter months.  

Expectations

Pupils are expected to dress neatly and appropriately.  

We encourage long hair to be tied back to avoid injury, and patterns shaved onto the head are considered inappropriate for school. Jewellery must not be worn to school.  If your child has pierced ears, small studs are permitted but must be removed or covered with micro-pore tape for PE. 

Nail varnish, false nails or transfers should not be worn to school.

PTA Treasurer Vacancy - Please get in touch if you can help!

Our PTA plays an important role in supporting the school by fundraising for resources, activities, and experiences that benefit all of our children. As we look ahead to the coming term, we are writing to let you know that we currently have a vacancy for the role of PTA Treasurer.

The Treasurer is responsible for keeping an overview of the PTA’s finances, including tracking income and expenditure, maintaining clear records, and working with the committee to ensure funds are used effectively.

Full support will be provided, and the current team is happy to offer guidance during the handover. The role does not require a financial background — just reliability, basic organisation skills, and a willingness to help.

Getting involved in the PTA is a rewarding way to support the school community, meet other parents, and make a real difference to the children’s school experience. Many tasks can be done at home and fit around work and family commitments.

If you would like to find out more, or if you are interested in putting yourself forward for the role, please contact Sara Peters in the school office or speak to any member of the PTA committee.  For more information on the PTA please take a look at our website Oldcastle Primary PTA.

Thank you for your continued support of the school and the PTA. We look forward to hearing from you.

Parent Governor Vacancies

We currently have vacancies on our school Governing Body for parent governors.  The position of school governors is an important role and we hope parents will consider applying.  

To apply please complete the application form on the link below and return to school by 27th January 2026.

Please click here for more information on our governing body. School Governors  If you would like to discuss please do not hesitate to contact the school office

Job Vacancy - Relief Supervisory Assistant 

We are seeking to appoint a Relief Supervisory Assistant to work during the lunchtime period, between 11.30am to 1.30pm as and when required, Monday to Friday, term time only. Working as part of a team, the successful candidate will be required to undertake the supervision of the children in all areas of the school including the school canteen and play areas. You will be required to actively engage with pupils, including play activities on the yard.  Experience of working with children, and the ability to encourage good behaviour and play amongst pupils would be an advantage, but not essential as training will be provided.   An Enhanced with Children's Barred list criminal records check by the Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) is a requirement for this post. 

Please apply via the BCBC website - click here.

Schools Cross Country - Years 3 to 6

The Schools Cross Country competition will start back on 31st January and will take place at Porthcawl Comprehensive. The event is open to all children in years 3 to 6.  Children and parents should meet at the venue at 9.30am for a 10am start.  School staff will be in attendance to coordinate the events. Please note no dogs are allowed on site.

T-Shirt Sponsor Required - Year 6 End of Term production - Can you help?

Year 6 children will be performing an end of term production for their parents and grandparents in the summer term.  It is always a highlight of the school year and a wonderful chance for our pupils to showcase their talents and creativity before moving on from Oldcastle Primary.  This year the children will perform Psychedelic Cinderella and we can't wait to see their production.  

We would like to provide every child in year 6 with a printed t-shirt that they will wear for every rehearsal of the production.  The t-shirts will be recognised throughout the school as children will feel pride wearing their 'Psychedelic Cinderella' t-shirts!  We are looking for a sponsor to contribute to the cost of the t-shirt and we will of course, promote the sponsor's association with the school to our school community, school Facebook page and in the production programme.   If you are interested in sponsoring these t-shirts or would like further information, please get in touch with Sara Peters at the school via ask@oldcastleprimary.co.uk

Nursery Open Day for children starting in September 2026

Thursday 12th February 2026 at 10am and 4pm

Come along to see our lovely nursery facilities for children aged 3 years. Parents and carers are invited to our Open Day events on Thursday 12th February. We have two sessions - 10am and 4pm. You will be able to view our facilities and speak with the nursery teacher and senior members of staff. The sessions will last for no more than 1 hour.

Please book a space by completing this short form.

https://forms.gle/osm19KyFhnpCQqm18

Community Food Pantry

The food pantry has been restocked this week and will be restocked every week on a Monday. We invite parents and carers to pop in and fill a bag with 15 items for £5.  The food pantry is available to everyone and we hope that you can make use of the items.  Why not pop in and take a look at the type of items available in the pantry.

Community Room

We invite parents and carers to make use of our Community Room and enjoy a cuppa and a chat.  Why not call in after the morning school run or before the pick up and get together with other parents and enjoy a cuppa. We hope you can enjoy this warm space to get together with friends or meet new people.

Contact details - Have any details changed?

Please ensure we have up to date contact details for you to make sure you keep up to date with school news and we are able to contact you during the school day if required.  You can either email us with change of details (ask@oldcastleprimary.co.uk) or complete the change of details form.   We will use email and our School App to send messages to parents about activities or events.

Attendance

We are committed to promoting good attendance at school and have a target of whole school attendance of 95%.  This week's attendance was 94.9%.  For more information on the importance of good attendance and how we manage attendance as a school, please look at our website.  Attendance | Oldcastle Primary School 

Nut Free School

Please can we remind parents that we strive to be a nut free school as we have a number of pupils who have a severe allergy to nuts.  

This includes nut products such as peanut butter and nutella. 

• September - Respect and Responsibility 

• October - Compassion and Hope 

• November - Friendship and Forgiveness 

• December - Understanding and Patience

• January - Determination and Perseverance

• February - Honesty and Trust 

• March -Learning and Effort 

• April - Community and Service 

• May - Co-operation and being a good citizen within society

• June- Showing Gratitude and Care and Generosity

• July - Taking and managing risks 

At Oldcastle, we are proud of each other and ourselves. We nurture all of our community so that we grow as confident, responsible and happy people. Oldcastle school is more than just learning.

• We try hard for each other

• We act responsibly

• We treat people how we’d like to be treated

• We work as a team

• We trust and respect each other

• We listen and learn together

• We share knowledge and experience

Together we make the difference

Together we shape innovative experiences 

More information on our values and visions can be found on our website.  Visions and Values

We love to hear about all of the exciting achievements of our pupils during out of school activities. Please share any successes with us at ask@oldcastleprimary.co.uk and include a photograph and details of the achievement to be included in future newsletters. 

Well done Bette from year 6 on your LAMDA  Level 1 Award in Performance achievement recently.

Rewards Day

Children in all house colours enjoyed a special reward on Wednesday,   Blue house enjoyed time with bikes or scooters on the main yard,  yellow house were able to wear pyjamas or own clothes to school, green house enjoyed some lovely milkshakes with cream and sprinkles and red house had some time on the climbing frames in the main hall or small hall.  Lots of happy children in school on Wednesday!  Keep collecting those tokens for our next rewards day at the end of the term.

Thank you to our amazing staff for facilitating the rewards on the day.

Year 4 have been learning about the Earth's crust recently and four year 4 pupils stood up in assembly today to tell the rest of the school what they had learnt.  Well done Bonnie, Lily, Evelyn and Sonny for proudly showing off your experiment and knowledge (even though the experiment had turned a bit smelly!)

Toddler Group

Toddler Group is back up and running following the Christmas break.  On Wednesday children and parents had great fun with the craft activities all about arctic animals.

Our babies and toddlers had lots of fun this week.

Vale Cricket Club

• 8th, 15th, 22nd, 29th January and 5th February - Year 6 Swimming

• 12th, 19th February, 5th, 12th and 19th March - Year 5 Swimming

• 16th to 20th February - Half Term

• 23rd February - Welsh Week

• 2nd March - Eisteddfod

• 13th March - Inset Day

• 25th to 27th March - Year 6 Residential

• 27th March - Term Ends

• 30th March to 10th April - Easter Holidays

• 13th to 15th April - Parents' Evenings

• 4th May - Bank Holiday

• 15th May - Years 1 to 6 Sports Day

• 21st May - Nursery and Reception Sports Day

• 22nd May - Inset Day

• 25th to 29th May - Half Term

• 9th June - Class and Team Photos

• 15th June - Careers Week

• 20th June - Oldcastle Rocks

Inset Days for 2025 / 2026

The inset days for 2025 / 26 have been approved by school governors and these are as follows:

• Monday 1st September 2025 

• Friday 21st November 2025

• Monday 5th January 2026

• Friday 13th March 2026

• Friday 22nd May 2026

• Monday 20th July 2026

Health and Wellbeing / PE Days for 2025/26

PE will take place on the following day for each year group.  Children should attend school in their PE kit on their allocated day.

• Nursery - Thursday

• Reception - Monday

• Year 1 - Tuesday

• Year 2 - Thursday

• Year 3 - Wednesday

• Year 4 - Monday

• Year 5 - Tuesday

• Year 6 - Friday

In the event that you have a concern regarding a child please follow this procedure:

• During school hours please contact Mrs Ceri Littlewood, safeguarding lead at Oldcastle Primary School.

• Out of school hours please  contact  the  out of hours Emergency Duty Team Tel No 01443743665

More information on Safeguarding at Oldcastle can be found on our website.