Happy St David's Day!!

Welsh Week and Eisteddfod

What a week we have had in Oldcastle celebrating all things Welsh.  Every child has been involved in our welsh week and thoroughly enjoyed the celebrations and activities. Today the week culminated in our annual Eisteddfod celebrations.

We have created a website specially to include all our Eisteddfod winners and photos. Please click the link below to view.

Welsh Week and Eisteddfod 2024

Our house captains have been busy encouraging children to work hard for their house colour.  Well done to our house captains for all their hard work this week 

Blue House - Darcey and Matthew

Yellow House - Rosie and Esmay

Green House - Leila and Isla

Red House - Sofia and Viktorija

Bardd Sword

Today our new Bardd sword took centre stage during the Chairing of the Bardd ceremony.  We were delighted to be able to use the sword in this traditional ceremony.

Criw Cymraeg Update from Welsh Week - thank you to our Criw Cymraeg for documenting the week and writing a wonderful report.

This week at Oldcastle we have all been very busy!!!

The Eisteddfod  

Nursery has had a really busy week, from practising their handwriting to colouring  the welsh flag. They are all such amazing little artists and their handwriting is outstanding! We were all so pleased. They have also been creating their very own daffodils, they look great too.

Reception have been making tasty Welsh cakes, love spoons and daffodils. They all look great. 

Year 1 have been using water colours to paint daffodils, they were also making posters of what they love about wales.  They were amazing! 

Year 2 have been making posters to persuade people to come to Wales. They were in groups of 4 - a spokesperson, a leader, a time keeper and a scribe. They also made posters to make people come to Wales.

Year 3 have been creating a quiz about St. David and designing welsh flags. They have also been reading the Little Red Riding Hood book in welsh! Year 3 were also doing welsh maths    

Year 4 have been building castles on Minecraft and designing them on paper, they have also been making love spoons and poems, the poem is called  The magic box. But they are making their own Welsh theme one.

Year 5 have been designing some amazing love spoons and have been writing their own poem with the help of The Magic Box Poem by Kit Wright.  They also they did an obstacle course and a feeding the dragon competition. 

Year 6 have been making travel guides about different counties in Wales, they have been calculating rainfall and population tourism, they are making travel brochures to advertise their counties and they have also been learning a poem called Fy nheulu a fi.

School Catering Menu

Thank you to our catering team who provided 230 welsh themed meals to our pupils who have school dinners on Wednesday.  The sausages, ice cream and welsh cakes looked amazing!

Parents Evening

Parents evening appointments are now live and emails have been sent to parents.  If you haven't received an email please get in touch with us by email, phone or in person.

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

Year 6 End of Term Production

The year 6 end of term production is always memorable as children start planning and preparing for the production.  This year we are delighted to announce that the production will be Annie!  Children have been auditioning for parts and we will be announcing the main cast members over the coming weeks.  All children in year 6 are involved in the production so as well as the main cast members we will have children helping with the stage design, set management and sound and lighting. All children have been provided with an Annie t-shirt thanks to funding from Bridgend Schools Savings and the Bridgend Lifesavers Credit Union.

We will be announcing all cast members over the coming weeks - this week we announced the roles of Rooster, Lily St Regis and Molly. Please click on the clip below to reveal who will be playing this role.

Rooster

Lily St Regis

Molly

Year 6 had their first read through of the Annie script yesterday.  They all looked great in their Annie t-shirt which have been sponsored by Bridgend School Savings.

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 

Schools Cross Country Years 3 to 6

We had a great turnout for the Cross Country compeittion on Saturday.  Well done to everyone for taking part.  Thank you to all the mums, dads and grandparents for supporting the event. Thank you again to Fox Landscaping and ECS for sponsoring our kit.

Sporting Success

We have some fantastic runners in Oldcastle and we hope you saw our social media post recently celebrating the success of Sam, Aaron and Frankie who gained first place in the Urdd Cross Country event in Brecon recently!

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 94.7%.

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

This week in Numbers and Play, we read the book ‘The Monkey Puzzle’.  The children and their grown ups made some symmetrical butterflies and some cheeky monkeys to take home.  They also played a game where they had to use their counting skills to feed the hungry monkey. There was some excellent singing at the end of the session, with the children choosing to sing the song ‘Five Monkeys Sitting on a Bed’. Da iawn pawb!

Barney

Barney had a special treat this week with a grooming session from Frankie!  Thank you Frankie for looking after Barney so well.

Heidi Hales from year 5 was delighted to bring in her trophy and medal and show Mrs L:ittlewood today.  Heidi is doing extremely well in her squash success.

Castell Howell Competition

We have been informed of a school Lorry Art Competition run by Castell Howell who deliver food to our catering team. for school meals. The idea behind this campaign is to involve children by asking them to draw a picture of what they would like to do during their summer holidays in Wales, such as visiting iconic Welsh destinations including coastal, urban and rural areas. This may be created in any medium including free hand and mixed media.

- The winning drawing will be printed on their 16 tonne truck, along with the child’s name and school.

- The winning school will receive £2500 of investment to spend on whatever they require to help improve facilities.

- The winning child will receive an iPad.

All drawings will need to be supplied by the end of March and to the dimensions of 400mm wide x 125mm tall (landscape). The drawings can be given to the school and we will pass them on to Castell Howell.

The winner will be chosen by the middle of April and the winning drawing will be advertised on their truck from June.

 All designs need to be submitted by March 30th.

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.