It has been a very busy week in Oldcastle Primary.  Our year 6 pupils have enjoyed their residential trip to Shropshire, we've had a few visitors into school and children throughout the school have taken part in lots of varied and exciting learning.  Please read on to find out more about our week and what will be happening in the last week of the school term.  

Don't forget there is an INSET day on Friday 31st March

Year 6 

Wow what a fantastic week all pupils in year 6 have had.  46 children from the year group travelled to Culmington Manor in Shropshire for their 3 day residential trip.  The trip was a great succcess with many of the children saying they had the 'best time ever' and that they had not missed home at all!  The children took part in 10 activity sessions throughout their time at Culmington Manor and everyone enjoyed the range of outdoor activities.  We hear that the food was very good and enjoyed by all the children and staff!  Mrs Littlewood was very impressed with the children and their behaviour whilst representing Oldcastle Primary.  As a school we were very impressed with the organisation and range of facilities offered by Manor Adventure. 

Children came home on Wednesday evening very tired and muddy!  

The 9 pupils that didn't attend the residential trip certainly didn't have a couple of boring days.  The children and the class teacher came up with a busy timetable and these children were able to take part in climbing, swimming, a trip to the doughnut shop, pizza making and trip to Newbridge Fields.  We were so impressed with the pizza making skills we hope children show parents how easy it is to make their own pizzas!

Parents Evening

Parents Evening appointments will be held week beginning 27th March and will be in person appointments held in your child’s classroom between 3.30pm and 6.30pm.  

The PTA will be offering refreshments in the main hall from 3.30pm to 5.45pm we hope you can support them and take time to enjoy some time with other parents.  

We are also offering parents the opportunity to have a tour of the school and see parts of the school that you may not see.  This will include our radio station.  Tours will take place at 4pm and 5pm.   

If you need any assistance with the booking please get in touch.

The Literacy Tree

We had some lovely feedback from visitors to the school this week.  We had a visit from a consultant from The Literacy Tree who thoroughly enjoyed visiting the school this week. They said "Each classroom is covered in contextualised vocabulary, grammar splats, sentence strips and synonym work…what a treat to see"! 

School Visitors

We also had visitors from one of our grant funders visit the school this week.  We loved showing how their grant funding has helped with learning in Oldcastle Primary.  We are proud of our school and love showing visitors around to see the lovely work that is taking place.

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. 

Rugby Success

Delighted to hear that the schools district rugby team has reached the DC Thomas Plate final following a win today. Well done to our year 6 pupil, Dion, for playing your part in the success. 

Fundraising

Well done to Macy in year 5 and Rosie in year 6 for completing a skipping challenge in February.  The girls completed 100 skips every day and raise £270 for Cancer Research UK.  Well done girls - a great achievement for a very worthy cause.

Eisteddfod News

Well done to Bette who came first in the regional Eisteddfod today with his recital of a welsh poem.  She is now advancing to the final stage, the National Eisteddfod in Llandovery at the end of May! 

Junior Park Run, Bridgend 

What is Bridgend junior parkrun?  A free, fun, and friendly weekly 2k event for juniors (4 to 14-year-olds).

When is it? It is held every Sunday at 9:00 am.

Where is it? The event is at Newbridge Fields, Nr Halo Life Centre, Angel Street, Bridgend, CF31 4AH. See the Park Run website for more information: https://www.parkrun.org.uk/bridgend-juniors/ 

What does it cost to join in? Nothing - it's free! but please register before you first come along. Only ever register with park run once, and don't forget to bring a scannable copy of your barcode. If you forget it, you won't get a time.

How fast do I have to be? The aim is to have fun. Please come along and join at whatever your pace! Younger children can run with an adult or older sibling. 

Bridgend Junior Park Run needs you! It is entirely organised by volunteers, and Park Run is always looking for people to help - email bridgendjuniors@parkrun.com to help.

Congratulations to Lewis Durston, who ran his 100th Park Run on Sunday and Beatrice Lewis, who gained her Half Marathon band. 

Language and Play Session

What a fabulous Language and Play session we had this week with nursery parents and children. Thank you to the parents and carers who attended this term. We are grateful for your support and positive feedback regarding the sessions.

The children enjoyed listening to the story of Elmer and made some amazing Elmers out of milk bottles!  They also made some Elmer ears which was Mrs Diehl’s favourite activity of the session.  We ended with the children singing the rainbow song beautifully in welsh.  Thank you to all the grown up that have joined us this term and Mrs Hemming, for helping out.  We will be running NAP (Numbers and Play) after Easter so make sure that you look out for the email with all the information.

Nursery Sensory Garden

Nursery children are creating a sensory garden in their play yard.  First stage this week was a clean up and finding worms! 

Girls Rugby Tournament

These year 6 girls had a fabulous time at the Urdd Girls rugby tournament in Newbridge Fields today. Da iawn merched. 

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 llino printing, fabric printing, line dancing, cooking, gardening, lego, science experiments, fitness, tennis, fencing, felt, digital skills, textiles to name a few!

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@oldcastlprimary.co.uk) or complete the change of details form.  

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

• 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

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