Junior Leaders 2025/26

This week, our year 6 junior leaders have been interviewing year 5 candidates to join them on the junior leadership team.

What is a Junior Leader?

We appoint Junior Leaders from Year Five and Year Six who form part of the decision-making process alongside the school’s Senior Leadership Team.  As part of the role of junior leader, children must have a good understanding of the vision and values of Oldcastle Primary School, as these will underpin everything that we do.

Well done to everyone who applied and presented so well to Mrs Littlewood, Miss Ellett, Bette, Gabriella and Izzy.  It was a hard decision for the panel with such a large and high standard of applications.  

However, we are delighted to announce that Avya and Gracie Rose will be joining the junior leadership team for 2025/26.  Well done! 

House Captains

Children in the school have been voting for their year 6 house captains this week. We were delighted to see so many pupils put themselves forward to be house captain.  Thank you and well done to everyone who applied.  

Following a vote by pupils in their house colour, here are the new house captains :

• Blue House - Charlie and Oliver

• Red house - Anwen and Jack

• Green house - Effie and Mila

• Yellow house - Archie and Maisy

Tesco Community Blue Token Scheme 

The Tesco Community Token Scheme has now closed for Oldcastle and we have our fingers and toes crossed for the funding.

Parents Evening 

Parents evening appointment will be held week beginning 20th October.  Appointment bookings have been sent from our website provider next week.  You will have received an email from notifications@primarysite.net with instructions on how to book an appointment. Each class teacher will offer appointments over a two day period. If you have not received an email please get in touch via ask@oldcastleprimary.co.uk  Appointments will take place on the following days:

• Nursery - Monday 20th October and Tuesday 21st October

• Reception P - Monday 3rd November and Tuesday 4th November

• Reception R - Monday 20th October and Wednesday 22nd October

• Class 1I - Monday 20th October and Tuesday 21st October 

• Class 1M - Monday 20th October and Wednesday 22nd October

• Class 2Y - Monday 20th October and Wednesday 22nd October

• Class 2H - Tuesday 21st October and Wednesday 22nd October

• Class 3O - Monday 20th October and Tuesday 21st October

• Class 3L - Tuesday 2st October and Wednesday 22nd October

• Class 4D - Monday 20th October and Wednesday 22nd October

• Class 4C - Monday 20th October and Tuesday 21st October

• Class 5S - Monday 20th October and Tuesday 21st October 

• Class 5A - Monday 20th October and Tuesday 21st October

• Class 6T - Monday 20th October and Tuesday 21st October

• Class 6E - Monday 20th October and Tuesday 21st October

World Mental Health Day - Friday 10th October

Our school will be taking part in 'Hello Yellow' on Friday 10th October (World Mental Health Day) to raise awareness for YoungMinds, the UK’s leading charity for young people’s mental health. No young person should feel alone with their mental health and that’s why Hello Yellow matters. We’re taking this opportunity as a school community to come together and show our pupils that we’re with them and they’re never alone with their mental health.  

Children may wear yellow to school on Friday 10th October - we will not be accepting any fundraising money.

Parents may find useful information on the Youngs Minds Website

Parents and carers may find the following information useful

PTA Christmas Designs

All children will have come home this week with information from the PTA regarding personalised Christmas cards.  Children can create a design on the template provided, return to school and you will then receive a personalised order form displaying your child's design.  There are lots of options to choose from, including mugs, cards and tea towels - perfect Christmas presents!  All designs must be portrait format and no glitter, sequins or photographs to be used.  And as a bonus, the PTA receive a percentage of all sales!

For more information on the types of products available, please look at www.classfundraising.co.uk 

All templates should be returned to school by Friday 17th October, to allow for the items to be ordered in time for December. Unfortunately, orders received after this date cannot be accepted.

• 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 

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.

Schools Cross Country - Years 3 to 6

The Schools Cross Country competition will start back on October 18th and will take place at Pencoed 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.  Mrs Evans and Mrs Littlewood will be in attendance to coordinate the events. Please note no dogs are allowed on site.

Bees

If you have been in the year 2 yard, you may have noticed a section of the grass area has been cordoned off due to bee activity.  We have recently taken advice and the bees have been identified as Cellophane Bees.  Cellophane Bees also known as plasterer bees or polyester bees, are important solitary pollinators that line their nests with a unique cellophane-like secretion.   Cellophane bees are fascinating creatures that play a crucial role in pollination. Their unique nesting behaviour and life cycle make them an important part of the ecosystem, and understanding their habits can help promote their conservation and appreciation in natural habitats.  We have been informed that the bees pose no threat and as a result, we will leave to continue with their work.

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 95.1%.  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. 

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 Champion Success

Well done to Lois Lee for her success in the recent Vaulting Welsh championship in North Wales.  She achieved first place in her individual routine and 2nd in her pairs and became Welsh Champion. What an amazing achievement Lois Lee!

Lots of lovely detail in these pieces of art by Lily and Evelin from today.

Chris Elmore MP Christmas Card Competition

We are pleased to share details of the annual Christmas card competition for Chris Elmore MP. This will be the tenth year of the competition and every year it’s getting bigger and better. Last year a pupil from Oldcastle was fortunate to win the competition! 

The winning design will be used as the official Christmas card for Chris Elmore MP and sent out to local businesses, community groups, politicians, and other friendly faces across the constituency. There’ll be prizes for 1st place and for two runners up. Every child who takes part will get a certificate, too – no one goes home empty-handed! 

This year’s theme is “What Christmas means to you” – a lovely chance for the children to let their imaginations run wild and show us what makes the festive season special to them.  Please use the template below to enter the competition. Designs can be returned to school and we will pass these onto Chris Elmore MP.

Here are a few handy tips:

• Keep it simple – sometimes less is more. If you are drawing a character, make sure it fills the space.  

• Try to use bright colours; try not to leave some of the space without colour unless it’s white for snow.  

• Stick to the template – it’s important for the printer that you stick to the size on the template. 

• Please keep your design in a Portrait format. 

• Make sure your name and class are clearly marked, this is so we can make sure we get your design back to you after we’ve announced our winner. 

• Don’t use glitter as it cannot be reproduced by the printers.  

• Don’t make your card too dark.  

• the printer can’t reproduce 3D cards. 

The closing date for entries is 4th November.

Christmas Card Competition Template

Bridgend Town Girls Football Club

Brynteg School - Years 5 and 6 Open Evening

Toddler Group

Local Event

• 10th October - World Mental Health Day - Wear Yellow

• 10th October - PTA Meeting at 2pm in school

• 15th October - Individual Child Photos

• 20th to 22nd October - Parents Evening

• 23rd October - Flu Vaccine Reception to Year 6 - more information will be sent home shortly

• 27th October to 31st October  - October Half Term

• 21st November - INSET Day

• 20th December to 6th January - Christmas Holiday

• 5th January - INSET Day

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 - Friday

• Year 5 - Friday

• 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.