We made it! Its been a super long term but we made it to the Christmas holidays. During the last week of term we've had a special Countdown to Christmas event for all the school, a magical Christmas activity for nursery and reception, a trip to the Pantomime for years 1 to 6, whole school singing and to top it all off we celebrated Barney's 2nd birthday!!

During our assembly on Thursday the whole school sang Happy Birthday to Barney. You can see the video here. Barney Happy Birthday He was worn out after the assembly and enjoyed a lovely snooze with some of his new toys.

Countdown to Christmas Event

What a lovely day we had on Tuesday with our Countdown to Christmas event. We had some very special visitors in school including The Grinch, Father Christmas and a party in the hall. The event was the brainchild of the PTA and we are very grateful for the support from the PTA ensuring that our children had a magical day. Every child was sent home with a gift from Father Christmas too!

Here are selection of photos from the day.

Nursery and Reception Magician

Pantomime

On Wednesday we took 324 children to see the pantomime in the Grand Pavilion in Porthcawl. The children loved seeing Jack in the Beanstalk and were so well behaved and represented Oldcastle to such a high standard.

Children's Books

Thank you to all the parents that visited the school on Monday evening to view your child's books. The buzz around the school was lovely to hear and we were delighted to see how excited the children were to share their books with their parents. The children spoke so well about their learning and there were some very impressed parents!

Nursery parents were also invited into school to see some of the artwork the children had created in their All about me topic.

PTA Cake Sale

Thank you to all the parents who supported the PTA cake sale on Monday evening during the book look. We are delighted to announce that the following won prizes -

• 1st prize - Page Baldwin

• 2nd Prize - Robyn and Teagan S

• 3rd Prize - Matthew W

Thank you PTA !!

Thank you to our amazing PTA who have worked tirelessly over the term to raise funds and support all of our Christmas concerts with refreshments and raffle sales. We are thrilled to hear that the PTA raised £1702.02. We can't wait to hear what eciting events they have planned for 2023!!

Enrichment

We have brand new enrichment sessions planned for the Spring term in 2023 - we are looking forward to launching these on the first Friday after the school holidays. The enrichment programme is a great way of teaching children new skills - since its launch children throughout the school have taken part in a range of exciting sessions including, cooking, fencing, tennis, weaving, sewing, board games, mindfulness, cartoon sketching to name a few !

School Community Forum

The next meeting of our School Community Forum will be held on Wednesday 11th January at 9am - we hope you can join us!

The School Community Forum involves members of the school community meeting once each half term at school to give their opinions, suggestions and support as we review and develop aspects of school life and approaches to teaching and learning. We believe that discussing the proposals for the school with community members, will enable us to ensure the best provision for our children. We hope that the School Community Forum will support us to drive our school priorities and ensure that our links with the local and school community are firmly established. We welcome opinions, views and ideas and would be delighted to share our vision and values with you. School community opinion is important to us please get involved.

House Rewards

House tokens have been counted for this term and the results are detailed below. Children got to enjoy their rewards on Thursday and Friday. We can't believe the children collected 16,700 this term!!!!! Dai Iawn.

Nursery / Reception Toilets

We are delighted to announce that our nursery and reception toilets are now finished and ready to be used! The toilets look fabulous and really make a difference to the area - who knew we would be so excited by new toilets! Thank you to our staff and children for coping so well with different toilet facilities since October!

Cross Country Competition - Years 3 to 6

Well done tot he children who attended the cross country in Porthcawl Comprehensive School last Saturday in the cold conditions. Mrs Evans and Mrs Littlewood were very impressed of your commitment.

In the new year the following dates have been scheduled:

• Saturday January 28^th – CCYD

• Saturday March 11^th – Pencoed Comprehensive

• Saturday April 29^th – Bryntirion Comprehensive

The organisers of the cross country will publish details of children's names and the results on their Facebook page - if you do not wish your child's name to be included please speak to Mrs Evans at the event.

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.

Bridgend Music Service

Well done to our young violinists performing for the Bridgend Music Service advent calendar. You can see their performance via this link. I'm a Peanut.

3E Volunteers Needed

Next term, 3E will go to the library on a Friday afternoon for their enrichment session. We are looking for parent volunteers to support us in walking to and from the Rec. Please let the office know if you are available between 1-3pm on Friday afternoons. Thank you in advance.

Admissions to school

Please refer to the Bridgend Council website for details of applications to school, currently applications are open for children moving to secondary school and children moving from nursery to reception.

Applications are open from 9th January for admission to nursery with a start date from September 2023

BCBC School Admissions

Contact details

We regularly email and send App messages to parents - please ensure we have up to date contact details for you to ensure you keep up to date with school news. You can either email us with change of details (ask@oldcastlprimary.co.uk) or complete the change of details form.

Headlice

Please can we ask that parents check your child's hair over the weekend as we have had reports of headlice.

Well done William!

This year William in year 3 has raised £178 for the Asda toy appeal,he has given presentations to local surgery's and businesses to sell the items he has made and baked. He has worked tirelessly and has made both his parents and the school really proud.

Below are some photos of all the toys and food William has purchased and donated. Well done William we are very proud of you.

School Choir

Delighted that some members of our school choir were able to visit Heathfields Residential Home today and spread some Christmas cheer. Thank you for having us. Barney loved the visit too.

1C had a tiny part of a picture to complete to create a class picture. They've also made melting snowmen. 1C also got into the spirit of the world cup they all chose World Cup Teams to support. Here’s their winner - he loved watching the final and watch Argentina become the champions!! Great work 1C!

Inset Days 2022 / 23

Inset days for this academic year are as follows:

• Monday 5th September 2022

• Monday 7th November 2022

• Tuesday 8th November 2022

• Friday 31st March 2023

• Friday 26th May 2023

• Monday 24th July 2023

Term Dates - all term dates are available to view on our website

• Autumn Term finishes on Friday 23rd December 2022.

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.

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