Welcome to the new school year in Oldcastle Primary School we have enjoyed seeing the children and were delighted to welcome parents and carers back into school.  We hope that you all enjoyed the summer break.

As we mentioned in Mrs Littlewood's letter to you earlier this week we have introduced a Soft Start

A soft start aims to create a supportive and nurturing environment that helps pupils ease back into school life, both academically and emotionally. Here's how a soft start will be implemented from September:

1. Welcome event:  This allows pupils to familiarise themselves with changes in the school environment, meet their new teachers, and reconnect with their classmates.

2. Relationship Building: Building positive relationships is crucial for a supportive learning environment. Teachers will focus on relationship-building activities like icebreaker games and team-building exercises.

3. Review and Recap: The first few days of the new term will involve reviewing and recapping essential concepts from the previous year or topics covered in the upcoming term. This will help pupils refresh their knowledge and ensure a smooth transition.

4. Goal Setting: Pupils will be encouraged to set goals for the new term. This can include academic goals, personal growth objectives, or extracurricular aspirations. Teachers will provide guidance and support to help students identify realistic and achievable goals for the upcoming months.

5.  Well-being: Using the Family Engagement Officer, Well Being Champions, the school will emphasise the importance of well-being during the soft start period. 

6. Gradual Increase: Instead of diving straight into the academic work, teachers will gradually increase the complexity and intensity of the curriculum over the initial weeks. This allows pupils to adjust to the academic demands at their own pace and reduce feeling overwhelmed.

We launched Pupil Voice to children in years 2 to 6 this week.  We are excited to receive applications from children who wish to become involved in this aspect of school life and become the voice of Oldcastle!   Our Pupil Voice structure will help prepare our pupils for citizenship by teaching them about roles, rights and responsibilities within the school system, our local community and beyond. The roles of the Pupil’s Voice will centre around developing, promoting and embracing our school vision and values.  

This year we will have the following roles available.

Class Representative - Applications are invited from children from Years 2 to 6. Those interested in the position of Class Representative will be asked to present their ideas, based on the school’s vision and values, to their class. Children can present their applications in any format of their choice. The class will then take part in an election to appoint their class representative. The person with the highest number of votes will become the Class Representative. The person with the second highest number of votes will be the vice rep and will be called upon if the representative is unavailable. 

House Captain - Applications are invited from children in Year 6. Those interested in the House Captain position will be asked to present through a 3-minute video recording based on the school's visions, values, and responsibilities highlighted above. Videos will be shown to respective house members. After, each house member will then complete a Google form and elect their chosen candidate. The 2 candidates with the highest scores will become House Captains. 

Wellbeing Team - Applications are invited from children in Years 2 to 6. Those interested in the position of Wellbeing Champion will be asked to present their ideas based on the school’s vision and values and the responsibilities highlighted above. Applications can be in any format and will be reviewed by Mrs Evans. Round 2 successful candidates will be invited to attend an interview with Mrs Evans and Mrs Jury. 

Junior Leaders - The Junior Leadership Team will be the pupil version of the school’s Senior Leadership Team and will have a say in aspects of school life that directly affect pupils.  This year we are seeking to appoint 2 children from year 5 who will sit alongside our current year 6 junior leaders (Seren and Florence).

Pupil Voice Application Information

Annual Trip Form

We emailed parents earlier this week regarding our Annual Trip Consent form.  If you haven't completed please follow the instructions below.

Please find below a link to a google form for our Annual Trip Consent Form.  This is an annual form where parents provide consent for your child to take part in routine school visits.  Parents will always receive communication regarding specific trips arranged for your child.  

Please complete and submit the form as soon as possible to enable your child to take part in routine visits.

Annual Trip Consent Form

Enrichment

We are delighted to relaunch Enrichment sessions once again this school year.  Enrichment will start back from week beginning 18th September on a Friday afternoon.  We have a number of exciting sessions planned for each year group and we look forward to launching these sessions with pupils and parents next week.

Throughout the year we will implement the following values each month.

• September - Determination and Perseverance

• October - Respect and Responsibility

• November - Friendship and forgiveness 

• December - Compassion and Hope  / Understanding and Patience

• January - Community and Service 

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

• March - Learning and Effort

• April - Showing gratitude

• May - Care and Generosity

• June - Honesty and trust

• 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 are currently recuriting for Lunchtime Supervisory Assistants.   One position is for a 1 year fixed term period and another position is for a casual contract.  Please state on your application form which position you are applying for.  Please click here for more information - Job Vacancy

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. 

School access and parking

As we start the new school year please can we remind parents that due to our location parking is extrememely limited around the school.  Please can we ask that we are all mindful of our local residents and respect their driveways and access arrangements.  Thank you for your support.

We have also reviewed our security arrangements for our after school clubs and will be relocking our external gates following pick up from school.  Parents should access the school via the South Street pedestrian

Contact details

Please ensure we have up to date contact details for you to ensure 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 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. 

• 16th October to 20th October - 5R Swimming

• 23rd October to 27th October - 5P Swimming

• 30th October to 3rd November - October Half Term

• 6th November to  10th November - 6I Swimming

• 13th November to 17th November - 6M Swimming

• 21st December to 8th January - Christmas Holiday

Parents Evenings are planned for week beginning 23rd October 2023 and 11th March 2024.

Inset Days 2023/24

Inset Days have been approved by Governors for 2023/24 and they are as follows:

• Monday 4th September 2023

• Friday 22nd December 2023

• Monday 19th February 2024

• Friday 22nd March 2024

• Monday 3rd June 2024

• Monday 22nd July 2024

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.