Barney Birthday

Today we celebrated Barney's 3rd birthday - his actual birthday is on Friday but as we are not in school we wanted to make sure we celebrated today.  Barney loved the attention and enjoyed the whole school singing him happy birthday in our assembly.  We are so lucky to have such a lovely, patient and kind dog in our school.

Christmas Concerts

Once again we thank parents and carers for all your support for our Christmas concerts.  This year we put on 16 concerts for over 1350 people! Thank you so much for supporting us and the PTA.  The PTA and their volunteers worked so hard to provide refreshments for all our visitors. Thank you all!

Choir Performance

We are delighted to share a very special school choir performance with you following a collaboration with the Those Damn Crows.  Our choir performed beautifully and we are so pleased with the result.  We would like to thank Those Damn Crows for providing our children with the opportunity.

We shared the video with the choir children on Wednesday afternoon and they were enthralled!  We hope you enjoy.

Those Damn Crows featuring Oldcastle Primary School Choir

PTA Countdown to Christmas event

What a lovely day we had on Tuesday thanks to our wonderful PTA.  Children enjoyed a visit to see Father Christmas in his Grotto, made a Christmas decoration and enjoyed a disco with the Chopsy Elf! What a lovely day. 

Christmas Productions

On Monday nursery and reception children enjoyed a lovely visit from The Littlest Elf to kick start their final week in school for 2023.

Pantomime

On Wednesday, children in years 1 to 6  enjoyed a visit to Porthcawl Pavilion to watch Beauty and the Beast.  All 308 children were very well behaved and thoroughly enjoyed the performance. We were delighted to see a past pupil Ceri-Ann Thomas playing the role of Belle and the children were thrilled that Ceri Ann came out at the end of the performance to wave our school off.

Family Thrive Sessions

We are delighted to offer parents and carers the opportunity to attend the Family Thrive for Parents and Carers Course.  This course will consist of six sessions and will introduce you to the key principles of the Thrive Approach in an accessible way so that you are better able to understand and support the work that is being done in Oldcastle.

It covers topics such as: How our brain develops, how to support your child in times of difficulty, and how to be a behaviour detective.  It will start on Thursday 25th January and end on the 7th March, this will include a one week break for the February half-term holiday.

If you would like to attend please fill in the form below to express your interest.  Numbers will be limited, but further courses will be run to meet demand.  Please see the information leaflet attached for more detail and feel free to contact Mrs Diehl if you have any questions.

The session will run from 9am to 11.30am.  Please complete the form below if you are interested in attending.

Family Thrive Sessions Form

Oldcastle Toddlers

From Wednesday 17th January we will be starting a new Toddler Group in Oldcastle Primary School. Pre booking is essential please message us through our new Oldcastle Toddlers Facebook page to book a place. Places are limited.

Please like and share the Oldcastle Toddlers page.

Facebook - Oldcastle Toddlers

School Attendance

Attendance at school is important. Our whole school target for attendance is 95%. 

BCBC Attendance Meeting

Parents are invited to attend an attendance meeting on Monday 29th January from 9.15am to 10am.  The session will allow parents to understand the importance of good attendance. The session will be run by BCBC Early Help team.

If you would like to attend please complete this form BCBC Attendance Meeting

Well-Being Parent Questionnaire

We are seeking parents views on well-being in Oldcastle Primary School.  As part of our overview of well-being we have sought opinions from pupils and staff, and we would now like to understand parental opinion.  Please complete the short questionnaire and let us know your views.

Well-Being Questionnaire

Thank you for your support.

Schools Cross Country Years 3 to 6

Last Saturday the years 3 to 6 cross country competition took place in Porthcawl Comprehensive School.  Well done to everyone that took part.  It was a cold and wet morning and it is always lovely to see some of our pupils representing the school in these events.

Nursery Universal Free School Meals

Important message for Nursery parents – Universal Primary Free School Meals

All pupils attending Oldcastle's nursery class will be offered a free school meal under the universal primary free school meals programme from 8th January 2024. 

All Nursery children will automatically benefit from the provision and there is no application process for parents and carers to complete.  Reception class, and Years 1 to 3 already benefit from this provision and will continue to do so.

PLEASE NOTE - It is imperative that all nursery dinner accounts are brought up to date prior to the 8th of January, please ensure there is no outstanding debt on your child's account.

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.  

For their weekly project, Year 6 were tasked with using Minecraft Education to build a replica Home Alone house. They had zip wires, basement boilers, tarantulas, Christmas trees, presents, vans and other brilliant details. 

3S took part in a protest today in school demonstrating through the corridors this afternoon to round off their concept where they have been learning about education for all and human rights.

Tennis Success

Well done to Daniel OB from year 6 who has been recognised for his tennis achievements recently.  Dan won the U10's, U14's and U18's doubles age groups in the recent Bridgend Tennis Club presentation event.  Dan also plays tennis for South Wales and has been selected to play with the Wales national team in Cardiff.  Well done Dan such great news.

• 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.