Monday 1st May and Monday 8th May are bank holidays and the school will be closed.

Year group concepts of learning

We've had another busy week at Oldcastle with children enjoying their concept of learning.  Each year group are focussing on the following concepts:

• Reception - Traditional Tales from around the world

• Year 1 - Myths and Legends

• Year 2 - School, Now and Then

• Year 3 - Castles

• Year 4 - Invention

• Year 5 - The Role of Parliament in a Democracy

• Year 6 - The Fashion Industry: The global impact

Coronation Event

We are looking forward to our Coronation event on Friday 5th May to celebrate the King's Coronation.  Our PTA are, as always, supporting the school with our celebrations and we are very grateful.  On the day children will be treated to a celebration menu provided by Catering services.  Thank you to parents for confirming sandwiches choices for your child. We have a fun timetable of activities for the children to take part in and we look forward to sharing photos with parents in next weeks newsletter.

Coronation Cake Competition

We are also pleased to announce a Coronation Cake competition to celebrate the coronation.  We will have a children's and adults competition and following the judging we will sell these cakes in a refreshment sale after school.  We hope you can get involved.  Cakes should be bought into school in the morning of the 5th May and clearly labelled with ingredient's and the entrants name and contact details.  

The refreshment sale will take place after school in the canteen.

Donations / Sponsorship Appeal

As part of the event children will be planting red, white and blue flowers and we are looking for donations or sponsorship towards the planters, compost or flowers.  If you are able to help or would like to sponsor a planter please get in touch with us or the PTA.

Careers Week

In June we will be holding our second Careers Week where we will invite visitors into school to tell us all about their job.  We launched Careers Week in 2022 and were overwhelmed with the support we received and the children absolutely loved learning about different career options.

Our aim is to inspire and educate our children and enthuse them about the array of different jobs that can be done.  We are hoping that we can encourage our parents to get involved in our Careers Week by coming along to school and talking or demonstrating what you do in your job.  If you cannot visit but are able to support us in another way, for instance a pre recorded session or other support, please let us know via the Google Form below. We are looking for a range of different job roles and this is the type of information we think would be useful :

• Explain what your job is and what your day-to-day responsibilities.

• How long have you worked in this job?

• What do you love the most about your job?

• When did you decide you wanted to work in this job role?

• Did you have to do any training for your job role?

• Was there something you learnt/did at school or someone that inspired you to pursue this line of work?

• Practical display - ie show something about your job or do a display for instance flower arranging - florist

We are looking for a wide variety of career / job options that will inspire our children.  If you can help out please let us know by completing and submitting this form.

Careers Week

If you require further information please get in touch with Sara Peters, Grants, Media and Health and Safety Manager on 01656 815790.

Cross Country Event - Years 3 to 6

Saturday 29th April will be the final cross-country of the season for children in years 3 to 6.  This is a fun event which will be followed by presentations.  It will be held at Bryntirion Comprehensive School please meet at 9.30 am for a 10 am start.

We would love it if all children from years 3 to 6 who have competed to date can come along and take part, as this is a celebration of their achievements, and they have done incredibly well.  New runners also welcome!

Time Capsule

This week Mrs Littlewood took our junior leadership team to a new Valleys 2 Coast development in Bridgend to plant a time capsule.  We were invited to put items from a  school day in Oldcastle into a time capsule and we included a variety of items including a chromebook, school uniform, pieces of work from our Eisteddfod as well as a photo of Barney!  The time capsule was planted in the development behind B & Q with a view to dig up the capsule in  2050.  

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. 

Sports Day

Sports Day for children in years 1 to 6 will take place on Friday 30th June.  Children in years 1 to 3 will complete their events in the morning and years 4 to 6 in the afternoon.  

We are still finalising details for the nursery and reception children.

Lost Property Items

We have had the following items handed into the office this week.  Some items appear sentimental.  Please contact the office if you think these are yours.

6H really enjoyed their visit to Sony UKTEC this week.  The children all had a go at acting, runners, editing, behind the scenes, props and costumes, directing and camera work.  Thank you for a fantastic day Its my shout productions ltd and Sony UKTEC.  Looks like a fantastic day with lots of new skills learnt.

Year 4 are currently reading Baker by the Sea in their Literacy lesson learning about bossy/imperative verbs.  Those shortbread biscuits looked great we certainly have some budding bakers in year 4! 

Reception have been busy this week! During literacy reception are reading the story of Little Red. In the story, Little Red gives the wolf ginger beer. The children then got to try ginger beer as most of us have never tried it. We listened to the ginger beer, smelt it and tasted it. We tasted ginger beer and then used a tally chart to record who liked ginger beer and who didn't.  The children have also been making different size beds for the three bears. Busy children this week! 

Nursery enjoyed fruit and a story in the sunshine when it made a brief appearance this week! 

Year 1 had a lovely visit to Bridgend library this week . Thank you to the parents that helped walking the children down to the library.

This week the Nursery children have been discussing healthy lunch boxes, and making healthy choices. 

Enrichment - year 1 had fun with outdoor learning and games today

Well done to Eliza from year 6  who represented Wales in the u13's  5 Nations Squash International in Edinburgh last weekend. 

Eliza travelled by car up to Scotland and met her team mates at Edinburgh squash club. The team was made up of 2 girls and 3 boys. 

Eliza got to play the English, French and Irish girls. and won her match against Ireland! Overall the team achieved 4th place which is one better than last year! This competition earned Eliza her 2nd Welsh cap. 

Great to hear this fantastic news about Eliza's squash success.

Dion from year 6 played in the Pricipality Stadium this week with the Bridgend District Schools team. Well done to Bridgend & District Schools U11's who won the are DC Thomas Plate after defeating Cardiff 25 v 5.  Great result for the boys and girls who got to play in the national stadium.

Fantastic to see Seren from year 3 on the poster to promote the Bridgend District Schools Football  under 8's games recently.  Well done Seren.

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.  

Inset Days 2022 / 23

Inset days for the remainder of the school year

• Friday 26th May 2023

• Monday 24th July 2023

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

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

• School year finishes on Friday 21st July

Wednesday 7th June - Class and Team Photos

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