We've had a busy week in Oldcastle settling back into our routines and ease our pupils into school life.  Next week the timetable starts following our soft start.  PE will start and these details can be found below, after school clubs start for some year groups and our enrichment programme starts on Friday afternoons.

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.

• Reception -  Thursday

• Year 1 - Wednesday

• Year 2 - Monday

• Year 3 - Thursday

• Year 4 - Tuesday

• Year 5 - Wednesday

• Year 6 - Monday

Enrichment

We are delighted to relaunch Enrichment sessions once again this school year.  Enrichment will start back from Friday 22nd September afternoon.  We are so excited to see children enjoying themselves in their various activities- the following will be offered throughout the school with year groups taking part in different activities.  Spanish, sketching, thai cooking, karate, tennis, badminton, fitness, rugby, netball, dance, mindfulness, outdoor learning, board games, mosaics, coding, painting, construction, and climbing!!  We look forward to sharing photos with parnts next week.

Annual Trip Form - Reminder please complete if you have not already done so

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

Flu Vaccine

Parents of children in Reception to Year 6 will have received a letter from the School Nursing team this week.  Please complete the form to indicate if you wish your child to have the flu vaccine adminsitered in school by the nurses.  If you do not want you child to have the vaccine please also complete and return the form for the nursing team to record.  The flu vaccine will be administered in school by the Nursing team on Tuesday 26th September.

School Attendance

Attendance at school is extremely important amd gives children the best chance of success.  For more information on effective school attendance please click here. BCBC are launching an attendance drive next week and we will share further information with parents next week.

BCBC Early Help Team

The Early Help Team will be holding a coffee morning for parents on  Friday 29th September from 8.30am to 10am in the school.  More information is available on the poster below. Early Help also offer a range of courses that are detailed below.

School Savings Club

School Savings Club is back up and running following the summer break.  Savings Club continues every Wednesday mornings.  If you would like more information on the savings club please follow this link.

School Savings Scheme

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

Barney keeping cool in school!

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

School Dinner Menu

A new school dinner menu has been provided by Catering Services and this is uploaded to our website.  Please click here to view. 

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 extrememly 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. 

Well done to Frankie and Aaron from year 5 who took part in the Welsh Athletics road relays at Pembrey County Park on the 9th September representing U11’s boys for Bridgend Athletics.

They managed to achieve a Gold medal for Bridgend Athletics at their first ever Welsh Athletics meet. Da Iawn!

Year 3 enjoyed International Dot Day today!

• 26th September - Flu Vaccine Reception to Year 6

• 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.