Junior Leaders

On Thursday, our year 6 junior leaders interviewed year 5 pupils who applied for the position of junior leader.  Seren and Florence were very impressed with the standard of presentations from all of the candidates and Mrs Littlewood and Mrs Burr congratulated all the children for taking part.  There were some fantastic suggestions from the candidates and we look forward to working with all these pupils over the coming months.  We could only choose 2 junior leaders however and we are delighted to announce that Harry and Ava from year 5 will join Seren and Florence as our junior leadership team for 2023/24.

Junior leaders will work with the Senior Leadership Team to make improvements to school life.

Enrichment

We are delighted to relaunch Enrichment sessions once again this school year.  Enrichment will start back from today.  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.

Voice 21

In Oldcastle we use Voice 21 as a framework to develop Oracy.  All classrooms utilise the Oracy Framework below to develop speaking and listening skills within the classroom. Below is some further information that parents may fid useful.

School Improvement Plan

Our school is committed to fostering a culture of continuous improvement and accountability to ensure the best possible educational experience for our pupils.   Our School Improvement Plan targets for 2023/24 are published on our website, along with evaulation of the previous years School Improvement Plan.  Please do take a look to understand how we aim to continuosly improve.  School Improvement Plan.

Reward scheme

At Oldcastle Primary School, we pride ourselves on working as a team.  Each pupil in our school is part of a house - Tŷ Glas, Tŷ Coch, Tŷ Gwyrdd and Tŷ Melyn.  Each pupil within each house can earn tokens for their house.  At the end of each week the House Captains collect the tokens from each class and they culminate in the token holders by the Main Office. 

At the end of each half term, the tokens are counted by our House Captains and Pupil Voice Team. The total amount of tokens are then announced during a whole-school assembly and rewards are provided. All staff at Oldcastle understand how our pupils should behave. Staff will praise and give tokens for positive behaviour, effort, taking pride in their work, showing care and respect and being a positive representative of Oldcastle. 

If your child is not sure of their house colour please ask them to check wit their teacher.

Class Newsletters

Class newsletters are available to view on our website, please follow this link to view your child's class newsletter.

• Nursery

• Reception

• Year 1

• Year 2

• Year 3

• Year 4

• Year 5

• Year 6

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 Next Week

The flu vaccine will be administered in school by the Nursing team on Tuesday 26th September. Vaccines will only administered to children whose parents have provided permission.

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.

Early Help Course - The Nurturing Programme

If you are interested and would like further information please contact easthubreferrals@bridgend.gov.uk

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

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 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 Luca P from year 3 who came 2nd in the Mountain Bike children’s race event in Bike Park Wales last weekend.  He did 3 practice runs and 3 timed runs, getting faster every time. His fastest run of the Kermit trial was 02:57. Well done Luca!

Enrichment

Free Tennis Session for Reception and Year 1 pupils

Bridgend Tennis Club are offering a free taster session to children in Reception and Year 1.   Please contact Head Coach Mark to arrange a free taster session at the club:

Tel: 07816915836

Email: markthomas@bridgendtennis.club

More information on Bridgend Tennis Club can be viewed here.

• 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

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.