Welcome back to school following the half term break.  We hope that our families enjoyed the break and the dry weather we had.  We are now in the last part of our Summer Term and what a busy term it is gong to be.  

We have so many learning opportunities, events and activities to look forward to we know that our children will be excited to tell parents all about their day when they head home.  

This term our year 6 children are busy preparing for their end of term production and completing many transition events to ensure they are familiar with their new secondary school.  It is an exciting time for year 6 pupils are they enjoy their last few weeks at Oldcastle.  We look forward to keeping you updated through our weekly newsletter.

We have another busy term of enrichment sessions on a Friday afternoon and we will provide an overview of these in our photos section every week.

Careers Week

We are so looking forward to our Careers Week next week and can't wait to keep parents informed of all the lovely visitors we have coming into school to inspire our children in the world of work.  We are very grateful to all our visitors and people who have supplied videos to inspire our children.  

We know it will be a busy week with lots of questions from children.  Please keep an eye on our social media accounts for updates throughout the week.  We will of course share photos with parents in next week's newsletter.

School Assembly

Miss Craven led our welsh assembly this morning and launched a challenge for all our our children, staff and parents!  Criw Cymraeg, a group of children in school, will be encouraging us all to speak and use welsh in school more frequently.

Our aim is to achieve the Siarter Iaith Bronze Award which has been developed by Cymraeg Campus for English speaking schools.  The aim is for Oldcastle to use as much Welsh as possible - not just in school but at home and in our local community.

Our first challenge launched in assembly is for children and staff to speak Welsh inside and outside the classroom - even if its just asking for something of giving commands, counting in numbers or greeting each other.  Criw Cymraeg will be making sure that we achieve our targets and encouraging children and staff to use Welsh more often.

This is the bit the children love the most! - Each week Miss Craven will be giving out tokens to the child from each class who has been speaking the most Welsh or who has been enthusiastic about using the Welsh language throughout the week.  The assembly ended with a Welsh quiz for teachers and children!

We love a challenge at Oldcastle and can't wait to report back to parents how we are doing with our challenge.  We hope the information below provides parents with a couple of key words that children may use at home.

Outdoor Learning

We are always keen to make further improvements to our outdoor learning provision and are asking if parents / carers have any of the following that could be donated to the school for children to create things and use their imagination in their outdoor learning sessions.

We are looking for a variety of items including:

• pots and pans

• wood, drain pipe, pipes

• measuring jugs

If you are able to help with donations of the above or any items that will aid outdoor learning throughout the school please let us now via ask@oldcastleprimary.co.uk or drop the items into main reception when we return to school.  Thank you for your support.

Community Food Hub

We are looking to create a Community Food Hub for the wider community to provide food parcels.  The food parcels would be offered at a discounted or pay as you feel rate and would be operated as a not for profit enterprise.  Our aim is to contribute to the reduction of food poverty and food insecurity. We would like reach out to our school community to find out if there are any volunteers that would be able to set up and run this venture once a month.  We would also be grateful for businesses to support the venture and help with initial set up costs.

If you think you can help please get in touch with Sara Peters via our ask@oldcastleprimary.co.uk or by phone on 01656 815790.

Year 6 end of term production

Year 6 are busy preparing for their end of term production and are upcycling clothes for their outfits.  If you have any 70's psychedelic fabric they would be grateful to receive donations.  

Class and Team Photos

Class and team photos were taken this week.  We will email parents once we receive the links to order the photos.

School Attendance

We are pleased to report that school attendance is improving and we are currently at 93.8%.  There is still room for improvement as our target is 96.4%. Thank you to our parents for making improvements to your child's attendance.

Sports Day - Years 1 to 6

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.

Sports Day - Nursery and Reception

Nursery and Reception sports day is now confirmed for Thursday 6th July in the afternoon.  The event will take place in Heronsbridge School.

House Colour T-shirts

The PTA have asked the school to forward this information to parents. 

Your PTA have made arrangements with a local company for parents to purchase a house colour t-shirt for your child if you wish.  There is no obligation to purchase the t-shirts - this is parental choice.  On sports day children may wear a t-shirt in their house colour.

It is a parental choice whether to have your child's name included on the back of the t-shirt. Parents may prefer to have your child's house colour printed or leave the back of the t-shirt blank.

Please click on the following link for further information - 

Child sizes - 

https://www.cheekybabytees.co.uk/collections/personalised-t-shirts/products/oldcastle-school-sports-day-t-shirts

Adult Sizes -

https://www.cheekybabytees.co.uk/collections/personalised-t-shirts/products/oldcastle-mens-sports-day-t-shirts 

https://www.cheekybabytees.co.uk/collections/personalised-t-shirts/products/oldcastle-ladies-sports-day-t-shirts 

Any orders submitted by 18th June will have no postage fee. The PTA will arrange collection of the t-shirts and these will be distributed from school on Monday 26th June. Orders placed after 18th June will be subject to a postage fee.

Before and after school - notice to parents and carers

Please can we ask that parents and carers do not allow children to use the outdoor equipment before and after school.  This week a member of staff had to intervene when children were seen using equipment in an unsafe manner.  Thank you for your support.

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. 

Da Iawn to Bette from year 3 who was the first person to represent Oldcastle Primary in the Urdd Esiteddfod recently!  During the half term holiday Bette travelled to Llandovery with her family to  recite the poem Fy Nheulu a Fi (My Family and Me). 

We are so proud of Bette for representing Oldcastle Primary School. Mrs Littlewood and Miss Craven were present and told us that she was absolutely amazing and so confident. What an achievement Bette!

Reception have been reading Handa's Surprise this week have been creating observational drawings of fruit. Da iawn Reception. 

The dolphin bananas look great for school dinners this week! 

Fantastic numicon work year 1. Da iawn. 

Year 5 have been walking around the local area this week looking at ratio and how people move around, use the facilities or shop in Bridgend. The children then created tally and frequency charts to create ratios. 

Year 2 completed sewing and textile activities in enrichment today. One group are making glove monsters and the other felt animals. 

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.  

Bridgend Schools Tennis Tournament

Following on from the success of our years 3 and 4 last term we are delighted to announce that one of our year 5 boys teams won the Bridgend Schools Tennis competition on Thursday. Thank you to Bridgend Tennis Club for hosting. Well done to everyone from year 5 who played this week. 

Football Competition

Some children in year 5 represented Oldcastle at an inter schools football competition in Penybont Primary School today. Well done to everyone who took part a great experience for you all.  Miss Matthews and Mrs Williams were particularly impressed with Harri F who played very well in all games. 

Rugby Competition

Some of our year 5 and 6 children took part in an inter schools rugby competition today in Brynteg School.  Well done everyone looks like you all had fun and you returned undefeated!

We love to hear about all of the exciting achievements of our pupils during out of school activities. Please share any successes with us at ask@oldcastleprimary.co.uk and include a photograph and details of the achievement to be included in future newsletters. 

Hello, 

We are the Poké Broz.  Boaz (9) and Roux (7) and we are raising funds for children with cancer and community mental health groups.

We are on a mission to collect 5 full sets of Pokemon cards, once complete we will be auctioning them off and donating all the money to people in need (children with cancer and a variety of community mental health groups that will use the money to take people that are suffering with mental health on day trips and provide ongoing support and advice. We have donated lots of our Pokémon cards but need lots more to complete the sets, if you are able to help in any way we would be so so grateful.

If you have any Pokémon cards you can donate, that would be amazing or if you are able to make a donation that too would be a massive help.  Donate to Poké Broz, Raising money to help others in need (gofundme.com) 

Thanks in advance, The Poke Broz

The PTA are organising Oldcastle Rocks again this year.  Save the date Saturday 8th July 2pm to 6pm!

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

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

• Monday 3rd June 2024

• Monday 22nd July 2024

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