Weekly Assembly

This week's assembly was a little different.  House colours met as a group to talk about the Eisteddfod and Welsh Week.  Well done to our house captains who have hopefully inspired and motivated their house colour to do their very best in the events.  There are a variety of competitions in the Eisteddfod, and children will be preparing their entries during Welsh Week which takes place week beginning  23rd February. Each house colour also practised their house song, and there was some beautiful singing coming from various parts of the school. Well done house captains for inspiring the children in your house.

Book Looks

We would like to invite parents from Reception to Year 6 into school on Thursday 26th February between 3.30pm and 5pm to view your child's school books. The informal drop in session will allow you to view your child's work in the classroom environment.  

Parking around the school

We have received a number of complaints regarding parking around the school. Parking in and around the school is very limited and we ask that where possible you park a little further away to avoid congestion and disruption.  Where this is not possible, and you have a blue badge, please be mindful of blocking driveways and parking considerately.

Thank you for your support in keeping our school community safe.

School Governors

We are delighted to announce the appointment of 3 new parent governors.  Hannah Howe Evans, Laura Hocking and Megan Apsee applied for the vacant positions we had and have been successful in their appointment. We are grateful to Jack Shaw, Amanda Moore and Page Baldwin for their commitment to the school over the last four years as parent governors.

Children's Mental Health Week

Children's Mental Health Week will take place from 9th to 13th  February .  This year’s theme is ‘This is my place'.  That means feeling like you’re part of something, such as your family, your school, your group of friends or a team. These happy moments help us feel connected, valued, and accepted. When we feel like we belong, we feel happy, safe, and ready to learn and play. It helps us grow strong in our minds and bodies, and it makes it easier to make friends, do well in school, and feel good about ourselves. 

On Friday, 13th February, all pupils will take part in a variety of activities and talk about how we can help everyone feel like they belong. 

Wear Red for Velindre - Friday 27th February

The Wear Red for Velindre campaign is an annual event aimed at raising awareness and funds for cancer services in Wales. On Friday 27th February, children and staff will be able to wear red to show their support. We will also be accepting donations on behalf of the Velindre Cancer Charity.  By participating, you help ensure that Velindre continues to provide vital support to patients and their families.  Thank you for your support.

Netball Match

Today we welcomed Tremains Primary School to Oldcastle to take part in a netball match with our year 6 netball team.  Both of the Oldcastle teams played fantastic netball winning 18 - 0,  Player of the match Fara,  and game 2 was extremely close with Oldcastle just winning 9-8,  Player of the Match Abigail. Thank you to Tremains for travelling to us and for the parents' support.

Rugby Match

Tremains Primary School were keen to come along today and play our rugby team despite the wet weather yet again!  A fabulous afternoon of rugby on a very wet and muddy Newbridge Fields, against Tremains. It’s great to see so many children playing and enjoying rugby. Once again a big thank you to our Dad’s for helping out! 

Jewellery in School

Please can we remind parents that children should not wear hoop or dangly earrings to school.   If your child has pierced ears, small studs are permitted but must be removed or covered with micro-pore tape for PE. 

T-Shirt Sponsor - Thank You

Thank you to the following companies who have provided sponsorship towards the t-shirts for our year 6 children to wear during the preparation of their end-of-year production - Psychedelic Cinderella. We are grateful for the support of Enchanted Adventures and Merthyr Mawr Honey.

Nursery Open Day for children starting in September 2026

Thursday 12th February 2026 at 10am and 4pm

We are delighted to invite families to the Oldcastle Primary School Nursery Open Day! This is a wonderful opportunity to explore our safe, nurturing environment where your child’s early learning journey begins. Meet our friendly staff, see our engaging classroom, and learn about our play-based curriculum designed to inspire curiosity and confidence. 

Come along to see our lovely nursery facilities for children aged 3 years 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 or scan the QR code below.

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.  At Oldcastle Primary School, we are proud to support our community through our food pantry, which currently has plenty of food available for families who need it. If you or someone you know could benefit from this resource, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us privately. Together, we can ensure no one in our school family goes hungry. 

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 95.4%.  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. 

Welsh Surf Lifesaving Successes

We were delighted to hear about all of the successes from Oldcastle pupils in the Welsh Nipper Still Water Championships last weekend in Swansea. We are incredibly fortunate that a number of the strongest competitors represent Oldcastle School.

All of the pupils were fantastic and played a part in helping Penybont Surf Lifesaving Club secure overall victory at the championships. Several children achieved outstanding individual success, winning multiple medals and even setting new Welsh records.

Well done to everyone who took part in the championship event last weekend.

Year 4 have been learning how to cross stitch this week. We love their designs.

Year 1

Year 1 has been learning about flooding. They built a house together as a group and will make some flood barriers to protect the house. The children will work together to test out the barriers and see if the predictions were correct.

Reception 

Reception had a wonderful trip to the library to kick-start their learning for the next few weeks, which will be all about minibeasts! The children sat beautifully while listening to the story Superworm, took part in a minibeast hunt around the library, and enjoyed making their own wiggly worms. We also used our Oldcastle library card to borrow some non-fiction books, which we have brought back to school to help us begin researching and learning more about minibeasts 

Year 2

Year 2 have been creating symmetrical designs using the wooden blocks.

We love this drawing of Barney by Morgan from year 4.

Toddler Group

At Oldcastle Primary School, we’re delighted to offer a welcoming toddler group designed especially for our babies, toddlers and and their families. Each week, little ones enjoy engaging activities that promote early development, social skills, and fun exploration in a safe, nurturing environment.

We invite parents and carers to join us and be part of this wonderful community experience. Let’s grow and learn together!

This week, Toddlers had lots of fun with messy play using shaving foam and designing a jumper!

Local Roadworks

We are aware that resurfacing works will take place in the local area over the half term period.  St Marie Street and Brynteg Avenue will have access restrictions during this period.  More information can be found on the BCBC website or Facebook page.

• 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.