Oldcastle Rocks

We are very much looking forward to the PTA event Oldcastle Rocks which is planned to take place on Saturday 6th July from 2pm to 6pm.  The fun family event is always well attended and a great opportunity for families and carers to get together and enjoy the fun events offered.  The PTA are busy planning the event and we look forward to releasing more details to you in the coming weeks!    The event will include a range of musical performances, a BBQ, a bar, bouncy castles, and so much more.  

A raffle will be run on the day, and we are asking if you are able to donate any prizes.  If you have any raffle prizes or know of a company that can donate please drop them into the school office.  We thank you for your support.

So for now, save the date, and we look forward to sharing more information with you about Oldcastle Rocks soon. 

Bump Up Day - Thursday 4th July

Bump Up Day is when we announce who your child's teacher will be for the next academic year.  Children will congregate in the main hall for a morning assembly, and we will announce the class teacher for each class.  Children will then be able to visit their new classroom and get to know their new class teacher.  Year 6 pupils will visit their new secondary school on this day.

Once our assembly has finished, parents will be emailed with details of the new class teachers and the location of their child's new classroom.  We always enjoy Bump U Day and know that children get excited to find out who their teacher will be from September 2024.

Access to School - Local Community

At the start and end of the day, the road outside the school becomes extremely busy with pedestrians and cars. As you may be aware, we have been addressing this ongoing issue for a long time and, unfortunately, have experienced numerous near misses and even some accidents.

It has been reported that some parents and children have been walking behind reversing cars, which poses a significant safety risk. Additionally, it was reported that there was an alleged instance of verbal abuse and threats directed towards a resident.

When possible, please use the pavements when walking near the school to ensure everyone's safety and well-being. When driving or parking near the school, please be vigilant and considerate of pedestrians. 

Change to Inset Day 2024/25

We wrote to you a little while ago to let you know the arrangements for inset days in 2024/25.  Please note that one of the dates has changed.  The inset day for Monday 17th February has been moved to Friday 21st February. We hope that does not cause any inconvenience.

The inset days for 2024/25 are now as follows:

• Monday 2nd September 2024

• Friday 6th December 2024

• Friday 21st February 2025

• Friday 11th April 2025

• Monday 2nd June 2025

• Monday 21st July 2025

Cooking Sessions

We would like to invite parents into school to take part in a cooking session.  We have been fortunate to link in with a volunteer who has knowledge of creating some exciting meals!  We want to help parents learn easy techniques to prepare some cheap and nutritious meals for your family.  We hope to be able to use some of the food from the food pantry too. We will provide all the food and the equipment for the session.

We are excited about these cooking sessions and we hope that you can attend.  Due to the nature of the session, the places are limited.    The session will take place on 25th June 9.30am to 11am.

Cooking Session Sign Up Form

Time Credits

We are delighted to let you know that we have signed up to Tempo Time Credits which is a scheme we can use to reward our volunteers.  We are always extremely grateful for the support of volunteers and we are delighted to be able to provide a reward for time provided to the school.  Volunteers earn Tempo Time Credits as part of a reward and recognition scheme for the invaluable work they do within their communities.  These Credits can be exchanged for a range of services and activities provided by local and national Recognition Partners.  We are in the process of setting up volunteers and look forward to being able to issue Time Credits. 

If you volunteer with us we will be in touch with how you can register to receive time credits.

Lost Property and Free Uniform

We have a massive amount of lost property once again. Please can you encourage children to look in the lost property area for any items that are missing or lost.  We also encourage parents to call in and look through the pile.  We have a large amount of lunch boxes, water bottles and even pairs of glasses.

Please also help us by labelling your child's items.

Don't forget we also have free uniform available to parents - please call into main reception to take a look.

Year 6 Market Place Bundles - Donations Required

Dear parents and carers of Oldcastle pupils,

Our Year 6 pupils have been working hard learning all about fast fashion and Year 6 teachers decided it would be a great idea to allow parents and carers to donate old and unwanted baby and children's clothes for those families who may need it.

After you donate any clothes your children have grown out of or don’t wear anymore we will put those donations together into a bundle by size. These bundles will be given to families in our community who are in need of clothes or can make use of them for their children or to a variety of local charities. The bundles will include information about the clothes inside (Sizes etc…) on the top so you know just what you’re getting!

These clothes will be donated to those in our community all with the help of your old clothes! We would be grateful if you lend a helping hand to our pupils who are giving to our community!

Donations would be much appreciated to start the children's journey of learning the importance of giving to others in need. Please drop clothes suitable for babies to aged 11 years into the school office.

Many thanks,

Year 6 Team.

The pupils have created a radio advert to promote the marketplace scheme - please listen here

Football at break times

Class representatives have devised a new scheme for the playing of football at break and lunch times. The new system was launched to pupils in assembly today.  Class teachers will appoint a class referee every day who will be able to ensure that football is played in an appropriate manner. 

Shine Sessions - Emotional and Wellbeing Support

We hope the parents who attended the Shine Session this week found it useful.  Parents may find the following information of interest.

• Resilience (supporting your child): https://www.canva.com/design/DAFu44lm_BM/GgHHc_SP9pIYaFWEmKKfag/view?utm_content=DAFu44lm_BM&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link&utm_source=editor

• Support with sleep (Cerebra): Cerebra - Working with you and your amazing child

• Charity supporting parents with behaviour: https://www.behavioursupporthub.org.uk

Food Pantry

The food pantry is restocked every Tuesday and we have a wide variety of items available.  You can call in on any day to collect items.

Young Poets

Some of the children who attended the Creative Writing Club run by Mrs Brotherton have had poems published in a book!  Here are all the poems the children created in the Club.  Well done all for being amazing poets!

Year 6 Annie production

Year 6 pupils are getting excited about their end of year production, Annie.  Cast members have been learning lines, scene designers are busy getting the stage design ready and digital leaders are documenting the process.  The children will be performing to their parents and carers on 16th and 17th July. 

School Attendance

Attendance at school is important. Our whole school target for attendance is 95%.  This week's attendance was 95.5%.

Reminder - if your child is off school please ensure that you notify us by 9.30am.  

Pupils will learn the following as part of our Honesty and Trust school value throughout June : 

• Understand what their environment is and how to care for it

• Explore being honest and what happens if we are dishonest

• Discuss a time when they have been honest/ dishonest - explore feelings

• Discuss people who they trust - what makes them trustworthy? 

• Understand who to talk to if there is a problem - trusted adult/ friend

• Understand that everyone is different and has unique views and beliefs

• Explore music and share opinions and differences in musical preference

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

Outdoor Language and Play Year 1

On Thursday, some of our children and their grown-ups in Year 1 (and Barney) went on a nature walk to Newbridge Fields for outdoor learning.  Their mission was to fill their buckets full of natural objects to make a ‘bug hotel’ for next week’s session.  The children did a brilliant job and had fun making the most of the rain by jumping into muddy puddles.  Mrs Diehl is looking forward to next week and seeing all the children’s bug hotels.

Year 1 have been busy making clay models and building towers - they look amazing!

Year 5 visited Sony this week and took part in a digital coding session.

This week in Nursery the children read Jack and the Beanstalk, and talked about the story and the characters and how they were feeling. 

Year 5 Crest Award

Year 5 started their Crest awards today.  The Crest Award is a challenging and thought-provoking STEM project.  We are working on teamwork and will be working in different groups across the year each week. Today, we undertook super spinners, where we investigated if the size of the blades made a difference when flying. We have created online science journals to keep a record of all our investigations and look forward to sharing these in due course.

Enrichment - Line Dancing

Fundraising Success

Fara from year 4 has been making and selling bracelets over the last few weeks and has made £17.70 which will be donated to the RNLI. Well done Fara.

Well done to our year 5 tennis players today. Boys and Girls teams are Bridgend Champions! Da iawn. 

Well done to Oona and Seren  in year 4 who has been picked to play for the Bridgend County under 10 girls football squad.  Excellent news well done Oona and Seren!

Community Room

Please do call in and make use of our community room.  We are happy for parents and carers to come to school and use the facilities after drop off or before pick up.  The room is also available if you wish to get together for a group chat!

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 

We love seeing the babies and toddlers coming each week to the Toddler Group - over the last couple of weeks the children and parents have been very creative!

Football Club News - Open Session

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

• Thursday 2nd May 2024

• Monday 22nd July 2024

Inset Days 2024/25

Inset Days have been approved by School Governors for 2024/25 and they are as follows:

• Monday 2nd September 2024

• Friday 6th December 2024

• Friday 21st February 2025

• Friday 11th April 2025

• Monday 2nd June 2025

• Monday 21st July 2025

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

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

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. 

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.