What lovely weather we have had this week, and our children have enjoyed being outside for some of their learning.  Next week is going to be very busy indeed. We have a group of children from year 3 to 6 representing the school in a Schools Swimming Gala on Monday. Children from years 4 and 5 are representing the school in a Schools Football Tournament, and our year 6 children will be enjoying their residential trip to Culmington Manor in Shropshire.  As well as all the usual learning taking place in school!  

Year 6 children were presented with their Leavers Hoodies today as they like to wear these on their residential trip.  Thank you to our amazing PTA, who funded the Leavers Hoodies and the bus for the year 6 residential. We look forward to keeping year 6 parents up to date on their adventures via our School Facebook page.

Next week is the last week of the school term. We break up for the Easter holiday on Friday 27th March.

Assembly Today

In assembly today, Miss Hodgson talked about Neurodiversity Week and explained to pupils how everyone's brain is different. We hope you find the following slides useful to understand what the children learnt today.

In a world where everyone is different, we should time to remember to be kind, its easy to forget that we are all on the same team. Whether you are the one learning to tie your shoes or the one trying to remember where you left the car keys, kindness is the glue that keeps us all together. 

Governor Open Day

Earlier this week, school governors visited the school for our Governor Open Day.  Governors were able to visit classrooms and reported high levels of pupil engagement, confidence, and pride in their work.  Children enjoyed sharing of their work, and school governors were impressed with their knowledge and enthusiasm.

The Oldcastle Family Spring Detox

Here's a bit of fun for parents and children to enjoy during these dry days.

Schools Cross Country  - Years 3 to 6 

Well done to all the children who took part in the Schools Cross Country last Saturday. What a lovely morning for the event. Special mention to Heidi from year 6 for coming first! 

The next Schools Cross Country competition will take place on Saturday, 18th April and will take place at CCYD. 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. 

PTA Disco

The PTA are holding a disco on Friday 24th April - Tickets are £2.50 each and the PTA will be accepting cash payment at the door. Please do not send money into school, bring the payment with you on the day. All children need to be supervised whilst at the disco.  

You will need to complete a separate form for every child you wish to purchase a ticket for. The PTA are hoping to be paperless so will not be sending tickets home.  Please keep your email to hand and show this to gain entry to the disco.  The PTA will have a list on the door of all tickets ordered.

Tickets are allocated on a first come first served basis and are limited due to fire regulations. We cannot guarantee entry to anyone who has not pre ordered a ticket.

Drinks, sweets and snacks will be available to purchase at the disco.

PTA Disco Form April 2026

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.

As a school, we are committed to raising awareness of certain conditions that affect many people. We hope to invite health professionals into the school to offer parents a chance to gain more knowledge on a variety of conditions.  Today we are highlighting ARFID.

Raising awareness of ARFID  - Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder

ARFID stands for avoidant restrictive food intake disorder. Someone with ARFID might avoid eating certain foods or, types of food. They might restrict how much they eat to the point that it has an impact on their physical and mental health.

Anyone can have ARFID. Although someone with ARFID might lose weight or have low weight, this is not always the case. It can happen to anyone at any weight. It’s also different for everyone.

ARFID is more than being a picky eater. It’s restricting your food intake to an extent that it has a negative impact on your health. It may:

• cause you to become underweight

• cause nutritional deficiencies

• cause you to rely on nutritional supplements or tube feeding

• have a significant impact on your day-to-day life

• impact your mental health

More information can be found on the ARFID Awareness website.

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.

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

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. 

Year 4 have had an amazing week for their enrichment lessons

RNLI Porthcawl Visit on Wednesday: Children visited the Porthcawl RNLI station to meet the crew, learn about water safety, and see the incredible work they do for our local community.
Scouts Association Collaboration: We were delighted to welcome the Scouts Association into school on Tuesday and Friday, who will be supported our team games and helping the children learn new orienteering and navigation skills. 

We were excited to welcome Forces Fitness into school on Thursday! They provided a high-energy program focused on building resilience through fitness challenges, a Mini Assault Course, and an Obstacle Course Challenge.

The Grand Finale Celebration on Friday to wrap up an incredible week, allowed the children to create their own pizza's. Children found clues as part of their orienteering session to spell out the 'make your own pizza'! As you can imagine the children were very excited to find this out! 

Thank you to our staff Mrs Martin, Miss Tompkinson, Miss Pearsall, Miss Williams and Miss Ledwell, for creating such a lovely experience for the children.  We are also grateful to the Scout Association, Forces Fitness, Mr John, the Hi Tide, the RNLI and all the parent helpers who made the week a success. 

Year 1 have been making mindful jars during enrichment time.  

Year 2 enjoyed making pizza this afternoon with Mrs Hemming.

Year 5 enjoyed testing materials for their science experiment outside today. Next week, they will be creating flood defences using their material results as inspiration. 

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!

Easter Party!

Our toddler group enjoyed a lovely Easter party this week.  Children enjoyed a lovely tea party and making Easter crafts and hats. The Easter bunny even made an appearance!  Children and their grown ups particularly enjoyed their Easter hat parade around the school!  We loved seeing their Easter bonnets!

Toddler Group will not take place on Wednesday, 25th March. We look forward to welcoming our toddlers back after the Easter break on Wednesday 15th April.

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

Football News

• 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.