Welcome back to school following the Christmas break. We were delighted to welcome pupils and staff back to school on Monday despite the wet weather! Barney has been pleased to see the children too.

We have a busy term ahead with lots of exciting learning for our children. We look forward to keeping parents informed in our weekly newsletter.

School Community Forum

We held a very productive meeting of the School Community Foroum earlier this week. Thank you to the parents who attended - we do hope more can attend in the future. During the meeting various topics were discussed including the following:

• Maths forum - positive feedback was given regarding the maths forum that was held in the previous term. These sessions will be arranged again the the Spring term.

• Literacy and Maths - the school undertake 'Listening to Learners' throughout the term to gauge feedback from pupils on literacy and maths lessons. The feedback was really positive from the children randomly selected.

• Children throughout the school are currently looking at 'Global Environment' and the group were asked if they had any contacts that could help us. If any parents are able to help us please do get in touch.

• Policy Updates - the Marking and Feedback Policy is currently being reviewed and feedback from children has highlighted that children prefer verbal feedback rather than written feedback. The school have also updated their Trips Policy.

• Enrichment starts back again this week with lots of new and exciting sessions for all pupils in the school.

The next meeting will be held on Wednesday 15th March at 9am - we hope you can attend.

Literacy in school

As you aware we are using a new literacy scheme in Oldcastle. This term children will be reading the following books in class.

• Reception - The Tiny Seed

• Year 1 - Continuing with Billy and the Beast

• Year 2 - Ocean Meets the Sky and The Street Beneath My Feet

• Year 3 - The Pied Piper of Hamelin

• Year 4 - Varmints and The Wild Robot

• Year 5 - Percy Jackson and The Tiger Rising

• Year 6 - Boy in the Tower and The Explorer

Drains Work Programme

The first phase of the drains works programme has been completed at the school. This means that the nursery and reception outside area is back open. We are grateful to our pupils, staff and parents for your support whilst this work was being undertaken.

Lost Property

Once again the lost property pile is massive and we urge parents to check that your child has not lost any items of clothing in school. Please help us by labelling your child's clothing, coats and bags. The items are sorted weekly and any items with names are returned to the owner, any items not labelled will be sent to charity after a period of time. Lost property can be viewed in main reception - please ask your child to check the boxes or call into main reception if you wish to look for a lost item.

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.

Dogs on school premises

Please can we remind you that parents are not permitted to bring dogs onto the school premises. Thank you for your cooperation.

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.

Well done Owen!

We were delighted to hear this lovely story during the Christmas holidays. Owen from Year 6 has had his hair cut after growing it for over two years. Owen has been inspred to grow his hair so that children with cancer or other illnesses could have a wig made. He was determined to keep going to get his hair long enough to make a wig. And now he has succeeded - that was a lot of hair Owen! Well done, we are very proud of you. If you'd like to donate to his fundraiser please see below.

Just Giving - Owen

Enrichment

So lovely to see such lovely activities taking place throughout the school and beyond for our Friday afternoon enrichment programme. This term we have such a variety of activities taking place including line dancing, cooking, gardening, lego, science experiments, fitness, tennis, fencing, felt, digital skills, textiles to name a few!

Nursery children

Nursery children had a fantastic time on the main hall gym apparatus this morning!

Inset Days 2022 / 23

Inset days for the remainder of the school year

• Friday 31st March 2023

• Friday 26th May 2023

• Monday 24th July 2023

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

• February Half Term - Monday 20th February to Friday 24th February

• Easter Holidays - Monday 3rd April to Friday 14th April

• May Half Term - Monday 29th May to Friday 2nd June

• School year finishes on Friday 21st July

Sony Workshop

Years 5 and 6 have been invited to attend a coding workshop in Sony, Pencoed, in February and March. An email has been sent to parents today with more details of the free event.

• 5I will attend on 7th February

• 6Y will attend on 13th February

• 5M will attend on 14th February

• 6H will attend on 13th March

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