End of the half term!

Wow that half term has flown by and what a busy term it has been!  Don't forget next week is half term and school is closed.  There is an inset day on Monday 19th February so we will see pupils back in school on Tuesday 20th February.  We hope you all have a restful week.

Well-being Team

Today in our whole school assembly we launched our new Well-being Team.  The team are Year 2  - Libby, Year - 3 Evie and Harriet, Year 4 - Milena and Izzy, Year 5 - Henry and Year 6 - Carys. The team work closely with Mrs Evans and Mrs Jury with the aim to:

"Develop an ethos of happiness and kindness, whilst caring for each other, our community and the wider world".

   The first thing that the Wellbeing team launched was the Buddy Bench where children will be able to sit and have a chat with a 'Buddy' during break and lunch times.

Sign Language

Also in assembly Miss Craven, Seren and Florence introduced the new sign language word and letter of the week.  Our junior leaders did a fantastic job of informing pupils how to sign the letter D and the word School / Ysgol.  Please take a look at this video to find out how your child is learning about sign language in Oldcastle.

Letter D / Schools Sign

Welsh Music Day  / Dydd Miwsig Cymru

At the end of the assembly we had some beautiful whole school singing to celebrate Welsh Language Music Day  / Dydd Miwsig Cymru.  Welsh Language Music Day celebrates all forms of Welsh Language music. Whether you’re into indie, rock, punk, funk, folk, electronica, hip hop or anything else, there’s incredible music being made by welsh artists.

We recorded the beautiful singing in assembly and feel very proud to hear the children singing the welsh national anthem.  Please take a listen here - we hope the children will be singing proudly tomorrow to support the Wales rugby team!

Wales National Anthem by Oldcastle Primary School

The children also sung a beautiful rendition of Calon Lan and Aderyn Melyn.  Hopefully you can hear how much the children love singing Aderyn Melyn by listening here - Aderyn Melyn. 

Thank you also to our radio champions for coming in early to set up the radio station and play welsh music artists this morning we hope you enjoyed listening!

Engagement Survey

Thank you to all the parents and carers who completed the recent Engagement Survey.  We are always pleased to hear our parents views and your responses have provided us with invaluable feedback.  Here are some of the headlines from the survey:

90% of respondents felt that the school engages well with parents and carers.

Respondents particularly liked the following engagement:

• 95% of respondents liked the weekly newsletter

• 76% of respondents liked the presence of staff on the yard at drop off / pick up

• 73% of respondents liked general communication

• 64% of respondents liked the sessions for parents

• 51% of respondents had interacted with the family engagement officer

• 86% of these respondents found the interaction very useful

Comments were received on how we could make improvements to our communications and engagement and we will take these on board with future initiatives.

We are grateful for your support and interaction.

Welsh Week and Eisteddfod

When we return to school we will be looking forward to our Welsh week which will take place from Monday 26th February and lead us up to our Eisteddfod on Friday 1st March.  During Welsh week children will be inspired by welsh activities and preparing for their Eisteddfod competitions.

Children will be completing a handwriting competition, learning a song and a poem, and designing a love spoon for the art competition. Children in years 4 to 6 will also ve writing a poem.  Everyone will have a go at throwing the rugby ball through the dragon's mouth too! 

During the Eisteddfod we will also perform the 'Chairing of the Bardd' which is a traditional ceremony for our year 6 pupils. The Bardd will be writing a poem and the winning entry will be announced in the ceremony. 

Children will be able to wear St David's Day costume on the 1st March or house colours.  We have a full day of Eisteddfod events planned which will culminate in us finding out which house colour has won the most points!

Food bags are available weekly (apart from school holidays) please do get in touch if you would like a food bag for £5.  Email us on ask@oldcastleprimary.co.uk 

Parents Evening

Parents evenings will take place week beginning 11th March and bookings will be live after half term.  The appointment can be made via the link emailed to you from our website.  The email will be from notifications@primarysite.net. Please ensure we have an up to date email address for you.

Appointments will take place on the following days for each class:

• Nursery - Tuesday and Wednesday evening and Thursday throughout the day

• Reception Y - Monday and Tuesday

• Reception H - Monday and Tuesday

• 1O - Tuesday and Wednesday

• 1L - Monday and Tuesday

• 2D - Tuesday and Wednesday

• 2C - Monday and Tuesday

• 3A - Tuesday and Wednesday

• 3S - Tuesday and Wednesday

• 4T - Monday and Tuesday

• 4E - Monday and Tuesday

• 5P - Monday and Tuesday

• 5R - Tuesday and Wednesday

• 6I - Monday and Tuesday

• 6M - Monday and Tuesday

Parent Governor Vacancy

We currently have a vacancy for a parent governor on our school Governing Body.  Parent governors are parents of children who attend the school.  They are voted on to the school’s governing body by other parents whose children attend the school.   School governors play an important role in school life to lead, support and improve.  They act as a between parents, the local community and the school. Governors are impartial and make decisions that seek to improve the school. 

You do not need any particular qualifications to become a school governor as you will benefit from free training, but you do need to be aged 18 or over and you will need to have:

• an interest in our children’s future

• the desire to make a difference

• time and energy

• a readiness to accept responsibility

• the commitment to work in a team

• the enthusiasm to ask questions, listen and learn

• the motivation to help shape the future of education within Bridgend County Borough.

Once appointed, a school governor’s term of office lasts for four years. You would be expected to attend three governing body meetings per school year, one in each term, and committee meetings, where relevant.

For further information on the application process please click here.  Please complete an application form using the specified criteria and return to admin@oldcastleps.bridgend.cymru

Application Closing Date - Wednesday 21st February 2024

Schools Cross Country Years 3 to 6

The next schools cross country event will take place on Saturday 24th February at Pencoed Comprehensive.  Everyone in years 3 to 6 are welcome to attend and we will be delighted to launch our new cross country kit at this event. Thank you again to Fox Landscaping and ECS for sponsoring our kit.

Baby and Toddler Group

Don't forget  we run a baby and toddler group every Wednesday morning during term time from 9am to 11am.  Baby and Toddler Group 

School Attendance

Attendance at school is important. Our whole school target for attendance is 95%.  This week's attendance was 92.5%.

Car Parking Around the School 

Please can we remind parents not to park on double yellow lines in the streets around the school.  Parking on the pavement causes serious safety concerns for parents with pushchairs and children walking these routes. Thank you for your co-operation.

School Start Time

Please can we remind parents that school starts at 8.55am and children should arrive in time to enter through their classroom door.  Children who arrive late cause disruption to the class. Thank you for your support in ensuring children arrive at school on time.

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

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.  

 Numbers and Play Sessions

Thank you to the support of the nursery parents at our numbers and play sessions over this last term.   We have been learning about numbers through nursery rhymes and the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  The children and their grown ups made their own caterpillars using toilet roll cardboard to print its body.  There’s been lots of number making with playdough and the children have been teaching their grown up how to use numicon.  Mrs Diehl is really excited to continue this amazing work after half-term. 

Trip to Asda

Some of our pupils have been learning about budgeting this week and had a trip to Asda to buy items to make sandwiches.  Children researched products, wrote a shopping lists and enjoyed buying the items at the self checkout in Asda!  On Thursday the group of children completed some useful food hygiene training to look at use by dates and then made their sandwiches.  Looks like they have learnt some really useful life skills. 

Safer Internet Day

On Tuesday children learnt all about Safer Internet Day.  Looks like the children had lots of fun finding out how to stay safe online.

Year 2 worked super hard on doubling numbers this week.

Reception had great fun, making balloon powered cars. We tried to make the cars move by using our breath. We attached a straw and a balloon to a toy car with cellotape and an elastic band. We blew up the balloon and put our finger on the end of the straw. We then let our fingers go and watched the cars move along the floor and other surfaces. We found out that the more air that we blew into the balloon the further the car went. The best cars were the lighter ones as they moved further and faster.  

Nursery have been practising our symmetry skills and painted symmetrical butterflies.  We have learnt about the Chinese New Year, we made Chinese Dragons to celebrate the Year of the Dragon.  We have also used numicon and playdough to see how many ways we can make 5. 

Year 3 used team work skills as part of their mental health awareness work

Year 3 had a great lesson on using chopsticks this week thanks to Jayden!  A great life skill to learn.

Enrichment Friday

Due to the wet weather this week planned netball and football matches at Penybont Primary School were cancelled unfortunately. 

Reception have had great fun this afternoon making pancakes. We prepared the batter with flour, eggs and milk. We then mixed it up until it was smooth. Mrs Strachen placed the batter in the pan on a high heat. We must be careful around cooking equipment so we all sat back. When they were cooked on one side Mrs. Strachan flipped them over. We added sugar to some. We really enjoyed eating our pancakes. They were delicious when they were nice and hot. 

Well done to Farley, Maisy, Lottie, Sofia, Anwen, Fara and Archie who took part in the Welsh Surf Lifesaving Championships in Swansea last weekend.  The children were representing Penybont Surf Lifesaving Club and Rest Bay  Surf Lifesaving Club and it sounds like a long but productive day in the pool!  Well done to everyone who took part we are very proud of your commitment.

Well done to Farley who came away with 1 gold and 2 bronze medals, Maisy who had 2 gold medals, Lottie who gained a bronze medal and Archie for achieving a bronze medal.

Well done to Frankie from year 3 for his Player of the Match award representing Bargoed RFC!

PTA Disco

The PTA are holding a disco on Friday 15th March - Tickets are £2.50 each and this time the PTA will be accepting payment at the door. Please do not send money into school, bring the payment with you on the day. All children need to be supervised whilst at the disco.  

You will need to complete a separate form for every child you wish to purchase a ticket for. The PTA are hoping to be paperless so will not be sending tickets home.  Please keep your email to hand and show this to gain entry to the disco.  The PTA will have a list on the door of all tickets ordered.

Tickets are allocated on a first come first served basis and are limited due to fire regulations. We cannot guarantee entry to anyone who has not pre ordered a ticket.

Drinks, sweets and snacks will be available to purchase at the disco.

PTA Disco Form

Shine - Schools inreach Emotional Well-being Service

After half term we will be working with the Shine team and looking to run some parent workshops and working with families. We look forward to providing more information agter half term.

Road Closure

For your information Merthyr Mawr Road has limited access next week due to resurfacing works.

Brownies

Girls Football

Baby and Children's Nearly New Sale

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.