Another busy week in Oldcastle Primary School.  

On Wednesday, children took part in a rewards day for their house colour.  Blue house were able to wear pyjamas to school, yellow house enjoyed a movie with biscuits and milk, green house decorated biscuits and ate them, red house enjoyed extra playtime with Barney!  What a fantastic day - thank you to our house captains for making sure children were in the right place at the right time!!

Next week our year 6 pupils are heading off to Culmington Manor in Shropshire on their residential trip.  We have lots of exciting adventure activities planned for the children including zip wire, low ropes, underground maze, camp skills and lots more.  Excitement is building amongst the children and we look forward to sharing photos with parents next week.

Ty Penybont Community Garden

What a fantastic time we had on our first visit to Ty Penybont helping Baobab Bach CIC develop a community garden. We can’t wait for our next visit. Thank you for letting us be part of the project. 

Outdoor Learning

Mr Murdoch has been busy this week with outdoor learning.  Year 4 have been participating in woodwork sessions and learning how to use different tools. Year 3 have been enjoying the mud kitchen and the Learning Lodge.  Some of our children have also visited Ty Seren in Brynteg Comprehensive to help tidy up the garden area.

School Country Country 

Well done to everyone that braved the cold frosty weather last Saturday for the school cross country competition in Brynteg Comprehensive.  Oldcastle had a good turn out of children from years 3 to 6 - well done all! The final cross country for 2023 will take place on Saturday 16th December in Porthcawl Comprehensive School.

Christmas Tree

We are so grateful for all the support we have received following our appeal for a Christmas tree.  We are so lucky to have such thoughtful parents and local businesses. Specifically we would like to thank the following for their contribution. The money donated has allowed us to decorate the school with two trees which look fantastic, and we will be able to provide every child with a gift at our end of year Christmas  event.  We hope you enjoy the trees when you visit for our Christmas concerts over the next couple of weeks.

Christmas Wreath Making

Thank you to our PTA for arranging a lovely evening of Christmas wreath making this week. The wreaths look amazing.  Well done to everyone who took part. 

Christmas Concerts

Christmas concerts will take place on the following days and times.  There will be two performances per year group and parents / carers will be able to apply for up to 2 tickets for each performance.  

Tickets will be £1 per person and payment can be made in cash on the door at the time of the concert.   Please can we ask that correct change is bought where possible.

• Nursery - Our First Nativity - Nursery Ticket Application Form

• Reception - Happy Birthday Jesus - Reception Ticket Application Form

• Year 1 - Christmas Show    - Year 1 Ticket Application Form

• Year 2 - Christmas Around The World - Year 2 Ticket Application Form

• Year 3 - Christmas Around The World - Year 3 Ticket Allocation Form

• Year 4 - A Star For Christmas - Year 4 Ticket Allocation Form

• Year 5 - Christmas in the 80's - Year 5 Ticket Allocation Form

• Year 6 - Christmas At The Movies - Year 6 Ticket Allocation Form

Christmas Concert Raffle and Refreshments

The PTA will be selling refreshments in all of the Christmas concerts and will be offering the sale of raffle tickets to win a hamper.  Thank you for all the donations we have received towards the hampers.

Thank you for your support.

Christmas Tree – School Cash Back Scheme

If you are trimming up this weekend, please remember that Ty Cerrig Christmas Tree Farm in  Bonvilston, CF5 6TR currently have a scheme where our school can earn money. The scheme enables participating schools to receive money back from your tree purchase - simply select our school from the drop down in the appointment menu or mention our school name when you pay at the farm to earn cash back for Oldcastle School. 

Please see the website for more information.

https://www.tycerrigchristmastrees.co.uk/

Free uniform and costumes

We have a large amount of free uniform. A clothes rail will be displayed at main reception and we encourage parents to help themselves. Thanks to a kind donation from our PTA we will be looking to have more rails from January and display the uniform at various locations throughout the school. If the rail is not on display please pop into main reception to take a look. We also have a rail of free Christmas concert costumes if required. 

Reading Workshops

Mrs Burr will be holding reading events for parents in the new year.  The sessions will provide parents with an overview of reading within Oldcastle Primary School.  The sessions will be held on the following dates - please complete the short Google form if you would like to like.

• Nursery to Year 1 - 11th January - 9.15 am to 10am and 3.30pm to  4.15pm   Booking Form

• Year 2 to Year 6 - 18th January - 9.15am to 10am and 2.15pm to 3pm  Booking Form

School Attendance

Attendance at school is important. Our whole school target for attendance is 95%. This week the attendance across the school was 94.7%.

Dinner Money

Payment for school dinners should be made via the Bridgend Council website.  Please ensure your child's account has funds at least 48 hours before they require a school dinner.

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

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. 

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 had a great day at Brynteg School this week with our cluster schools Litchard Primary, Brackla Primary, Penybont Primary and Tremains Primary, working on our new cluster project. Watch this space! #thinkoutsidethelunchbox. Thank you Asda for hosting us. 

Year 6 worked really hard on upcycling chairs for their enrichment sessions in year 5.  They look great and are now being used on the main yard.

This week in nursery

We have started to learn the names of 3D shapes, been matching numb on shapes to numbers and had lots of fun playing parachute game and building with the blocks. 

• 4th to 6th December - Year 6 Residential Trip to Culmington Manor

• 13th December - Christmas Dinner Day

• 18th December - Nursery and Reception The Little Elf Event

• 20th December - Pantomime Years 1 to 6

• 21st December- Last Day in School 

• 22nd December - Inset Day

• 8th January - Return to School

The next Parents Evenings are planned for week beginning 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

P.E. lessons this term will take place on the following days.  Children attending school should wear their P.E. kit to school on the day of their lesson.

• Nursery - Thursday

• Reception -  Thursday

• Year 1 - Wednesday

• Year 2 - Monday

• Year 3 - Thursday

• Year 4 - Tuesday

• Year 5 - Wednesday

• Year 6 - Monday

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.