Welsh Assembly

Miss Craven held a lovely welsh assembly today to introduce next year's Criw Cymraeg and say farewell to our year 6 Criw Cymraeg members.  Some beautiful welsh spoken and sung today.

Sports Day - Nursery and Reception

Nursery and Reception sports day was a great success on Thursday.  The children were amazing. Thank you to our fabulous staff for a great event. Thank you to the parents & grandparents who supported all our children & finally thank you Heronsbridge School for the venue. 

Sports Day years 1 to 6

The revised date is Wednesday 12th July

Children in years 1 to 3 will complete their events in the morning and years 4 to 6 in the afternoon.  

The timings for the day are as follows:

• 9.30am to 12pm - Years 1, 2 and 3 events - Children will return to school for lunch.

• 12.30pm to 3pm - Years 4, 5 and 6 - Children will need to bring sandwiches on this day.

Please ensure that all children attend school with a bottle of water, a hat and sun cream applied.

The PTA will be providing refreshments on the day.  If you are able to help out please get in touch.  The PTA will also be hoping for cake donations for the event.  If you are able to donate a cake please bring into the main office at school drop off (9am), homemade cakes will require a list of ingredients included.  Thank you for your support.

We are looking forward to welcoming families and our local community to Oldcastle Rocks tomorrow from 2pm.  The PTA have lots of exciting artists and activities planned along with a BBQ and bar.  Here's a taster of what will be on offer......... Cash and card payments will be accepted.

School Reports

School reports are being sent home with children today.  These will be given to parents / grandparents who collect children at the end of the school day.  If your child is going home with another child the report will not be sent home.  Reports not collected today may be collected from the office.

If you have requested a duplicate report and are not on school pick up today these may be collected from the office.

If your child attends late club or after school club parents will be able to collect the report from Mrs Loughran at pick up time.

Children in years 5 and 6 who walk home on their own will be issued with the report at the end of the day.

We welcome feedback from parents on your child's school report.  Please complete this form to let us know how useful you find the report and let us know of any comments you would like to make.  Please complete and return the form by Wednesday 19th July 2022.

School Report Feedback Form

Book Look - Invitation to parents

We are delighted to offer parents the opportunity to come into school to view your child's fantastic work. On Thursday 13th July we will hold a Parent Book Look where your child will be able to share all of their exciting learning with you.  Staff will not be available on this night as we would like the children to lead the event. Members of the leadership team will be on hand should you have any questions throughout.   The school will be open from 3.15pm to 4.45pm.

We hope to hold other events similar to this throughout the year so don't worry if you can't make this one.

Universal Free School Meals

Children in Reception, Years 1 and Years 2 are provided with  universal free school meals as part of a Welsh Government initiative.  The year groups are provided with a hot school dinner, if requested, on a daily basis.  When these year groups are on a school trip the provision will be a packed lunch and we ask that parents complete a Google form to confirm if they require a packed lunch provided by the school or if they will provide their own packed lunch.  If your child is in one of these year groups and on a school trip please look out for an email to confirm if you require a packed lunch for your child.  

For your information, all nursery children who move to Reception class in September 2023 will qualify for a welsh government initiative in relation to free school meals.  Children will receive their school meal free of charge under 'Universal Provision of Free School Meals', otherwise known as UPFSM.  From September 4th you will no longer have to pay for your child's school meal, please ensure you have enough funds on your account to pay for all meals up to the end of term and your account should be kept with a zero balance after this date.  If your child wishes to continue with having a packed lunch, they can of course do so.

For your information, we have also been advised that children who will move to Year 3 in September will continue to receive the 'Universal Provision of Free School Meals' (UPFSM).   Children who wish to continue having a packed lunch can of course do so but any child who wishes to have a school meal can order one free of charge each day.

From September 2023 this provision will apply to children from reception class to year 3, children in Nursery and years 4,5 and 6 will continue to pay for their meals as normal.

Criw Cymraeg 

This week, we have been preparing for our Bronze Award Verification. 

We have been so impressed with the extra effort children and staff have been putting into their Welsh language use in the last few weeks. 

Bendigedig! 

Gair yr wythnos - Word of the week:

Gwrandwech

Listen

Brawddeg yr wythnos - Phrase of the week:  

Wyt ti eisiau…? 

Do you want…?

Good Housekeeping's young writer's competition

Parents and children may be interested in this young writers competition.  Children's Writing Competition 2023 | In Partnership With Good Housekeeping | National Literacy Trust 

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. 

As part of their literacy work, reception have been continuing to  read ‘Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain’. This week they received a postcard from Ki-pat and they were challenged to write and design our own postcards to friends, imagining that they went to visit Kenya. They really enjoyed learning about Kenya through this book and adding to their literacy working wall.  

In the museum the children experienced an old fashioned class room, found out about the Porthcawl railway, how an ancient canon was found on the beach, listened to Aunty Sian telling them about how people lived in the 1950s and also visited an air rain shelter.  

Year 5 enjoyed a visit to the Senedd this week and learnt a lot about life in the Senedd from Sarah Murphy MS. Thank you for hosting us. 

Year 6 are very busy preparing for their end of year production. ‘Psychedelic Cinderella’ is sure to go down a storm when they perform for all our pupils and their parents in the last week of term! 

Barney loved cheering on our children in the nursery and reception sports event yesterday afternoon. He still had plenty of energy to enjoy a visit to the beach after school too! #schooldog 

Our year 6 children loved the Brynteg School production of Grease in the Grand Pavilion this morning. They loved the vibe and gained much inspiration for their end of year Psychedelic Cinderella show in a couple of weeks! Well done Brynteg an incredible performance. 

Enrichment

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.  

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. 

Diary Dates

8th July - Oldcastle Rocks 

13th July - Book Look for parents

Inset Days 2022 / 23

Inset days for the remainder of the school year

• Monday 24th July 2023

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

• 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