Shaping the Future of Oldcastle - Parents Working Party

Thank you to the parents who attend the working party this afternoon.  We are very grateful for your support and we look forward to providing you with an update shortly.  

Parents Evening Appointments

Parents evening appointments will take place week beginning 13th April 2026. You will have received an email from notifications@primarysite.net to book an appointment.

• Full time nursery - Monday 13th, Tuesday 14th and Wednesday 15th April

• Reception P - Tuesday 14th and Wednesday 15th April

• Reception R - Monday 13th and Wednesday 15th April

• Class 1 I - Monday 13th and Tuesday 14th April

• Class 1 M - Monday 13th and Wednesday 15th April

• Class 2 Y - Wednesday 15th and Thursday 16th April

• Class 2 H - Tuesday 14th and Thursday 16th April

• Class 3 O - Tuesday 14th and Thursday 16th April

• Class 3 L - Wednesday 15th and Thursday 16th April

• Class 4 D - Monday 13th and Tuesday 14th April

• Class 4 C Monday 13th and Tuesday 14th April

• Class 5 S - Monday 13h and Tuesday 14th April

• Class 5 A - Monday 13th and Tuesday 14th April

• Class 6 E - Monday 13th and Tuesday 14th April

• Class 6 T - Monday 13th and Tuesday 14th April

Learning Beyond the Classroom: Our Netball Trip Fundraising Journey

We are so proud of our year 5 and 6 netball teams, we hope you enjoy their inspiring and motivating story.

As part of our commitment to providing enriching sporting opportunities, the Year 5 and 6 netball teams, alongside the wider school community,  worked collaboratively to raise funds for a trip to watch a professional netball match. The visit was designed to inspire pupils, to motivate them to develop their skills and teamwork, and to educate them about high-level sport while providing a real-life context for learning about resilience and aspiration.

Rather than relying on school funding, pupils were actively involved in leading and supporting a range of fundraising activities. These included bake sales, bracelet sales, Christmas craft sales, and highly anticipated Pupils vs Parents netball matches. Through these events, pupils took ownership of organising, creating, budgeting and engaging with the wider community. This approach ensured that the experience was not only about attending the match itself but also about developing valuable life skills throughout the journey.

Community Focus

This fundraising journey strongly reflected our school’s commitment to community engagement. Families, carers, and extended relatives actively supported the events by participating, donating, or attending. The collaborative nature of the fundraising reinforced the partnership between home and school and demonstrated the power of collective effort.

Pupils personally experienced how community support can help achieve shared goals. They developed a sense of belonging and pride in contributing to something meaningful beyond themselves. The events also created inclusive opportunities for families to engage with school life in a positive and celebratory way.

Through organising and participating in a range of fundraising activities, pupils applied their numeracy skills in meaningful, real-life contexts, such as budgeting, handling money, and calculating totals. These practical experiences strengthened their problem-solving abilities, resilience, and independence.

Designing and selling bracelets and Christmas crafts provided pupils with meaningful opportunities to think creatively and take ownership of their ideas. Pupils considered what would appeal to buyers and made thoughtful choices about how to present and sell their products. Throughout the process, pupils worked cooperatively, shared roles and responsibilities, and learned to evaluate what was successful. This hands-on experience helped them understand how planning, teamwork, and decision-making contribute to achieving a successful outcome, while also developing collaboration, responsibility, and entrepreneurial thinking.

At the same time, pupils developed a strong sense of fairness, shared responsibility, and community contribution. Working towards a common goal helped them recognise the value of collective effort and mutual support. The Pupils vs Parents netball matches, in particular, fostered respect, sportsmanship, and positive relationships between different age groups within the school community, while also promoting physical activity, wellbeing, and confidence.

The opportunity to attend a professional netball match helped bring these experiences together, broadening pupils’ aspirations and reinforcing positive attitudes towards teamwork, perseverance, and goal-setting through exposure to a professional netball game.

Impact

As a result of the sustained fundraising efforts, pupils successfully raised all of the required funds themselves, with no school funding being used to support the trip. This achievement reflected the hard work, commitment, and collective support of the school community throughout the fundraising process. Beyond the financial outcome, the fundraising journey had a significant impact on pupils’ confidence, teamwork, communication skills, and sense of responsibility. Pupils demonstrated pride in their achievements and developed a deeper appreciation of the effort required to reach shared goals. The experience strengthened community partnerships and provided a powerful example of learning beyond the classroom.

This demonstrates how purposeful fundraising can extend beyond simply raising money, playing an important role in supporting the holistic development of pupils by providing valuable learning experiences, building confidence, and strengthening essential life skills.

The children thoroughly enjoyed their visit to the Dragons Netball Match on Friday 6th March!

Schools Cross Country  - Years 3 to 6 

The Schools Cross Country competition will start back on Saturday, 14th March 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. 

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%.  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 

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.

Cerebral Palsy Awareness Month

March is Cerebral Palsy Awareness Month and as a school we are committed to raising awareness of the condition amongst parents.  Cerebral palsy is a lifelong disorder affecting movement and posture. There are 17 million people worldwide with cerebral palsy  and it is the most common disability in children worldwide.

Every child with cerebral palsy has their own unique strengths and challenges.  Cerebral Palsy Cymru aim to improve the quality of life of all children in Wales living with cerebral palsy. 

If you would like more information on the fundraising events taking place for Cerebral Palsy Awareness Month please take a look here Cerebral Palsy Cymru.

Outdoor resources

Plase can we ask that you do not allow your children to play with the outdoor learning resources before and after school. Outdoor resources are set up ready for learning to take place and when the items are relocated by the children it creates another task to tidy the area before learning can take place. 

Please can we ask that children do not run around on the mud bank in the year 2 yard before school in the morning. When this area is wet it becomes very muddy and the children are bringing this mud into the classroom on their shoes.  Children are also reminded to be respectful of the trees as they are shaking them and hanging off the branches. 

Complaint from local residents

We have received complaints from local residents regarding access arrangements to the school at drop off and pick up times.  Please can you ensure that pavements are used in South Street as the road is used by local residents for vehicle movements.  Children on scooters should be mindful and remember that cars will use the road.  The entrance in South Street is situated in a dead end street so we suggest that parents and carers park away from this entrance and walk to school rather than trying to drive down the street.

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

Community Food Pantry

The food pantry is  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.

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. 

Sporting Success

Well done to Charlotte and Tommy for achieving Player of the Day for Bridgend Town under-7s team.

Inventions!

Izzy and Eloise from year 6 have made an amazing intention - a conveyor belt to have sprinklers on your welsh cakes!  Mrs Peters was delighted to see the invention in practice this week! Great work girls.

Beach Academy Wales

Our Reception children really enjoyed a visit from Beach Academy Wales this morning. The children loved the interactive session learning how to keep starfish safe if they see them at the beach. Beach Academy Wales also informed the children what creatures to look out for in rock pools. Thank you for visiting. 

Beach Academy Wales

Year 3 also had a visit from Beach Academy Wales this week and enjoyed the sessions ‘Looking for Habitats' . The children really enjoyed this enrichment activity and we were delighted to hear from the visitors that the children and staff were so kind and welcoming.

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!

Sunday Afternoon Theatre Club Show

Please see leaflet below regarding a Sunday Afternoon Theatre Show.  We understand there are lots of Oldcastle pupils in the show from nursery right up to year 6 so they would love the support of anyone who would like to come and watch.

If you would like to purchase tickets please follow this link. https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/sunday-afternoon-theatre-club/e-jzvrrr

• 13th March - Inset Day

• 14th March - Years 3 to 6 Schools Cross Country - Porthcawl

• 25th to 27th March - Year 6 Residential

• 27th March - Term Ends

• 30th March to 10th April - Easter Holidays

• 13th to 16th April - Parents' Evenings

• 18th April - Years 3 to 6 Schools Cross Country - CCYD

• 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.