School Assembly

We had a lovely virtual school assembly this morning to celebrate Shwmae Day which takes place tomorrow. The aim of Shwmae Day is to promote the speaking of welsh and promote starting a conversation in Welsh. Miss Craven started the assembly by informing the children about Swhmae Day and explaining how they can all get involved in school today.

Miss Craven organised an excellent virtual quiz with all year groups participating. We learnt how the children speak welsh within their classroom and what welsh language they use. We also heard some fantastic welsh singing from the whole school as well as an individual class performance by nursery and year 3 - year 3 were put on the spot ad asked to perform Pen, ysgwyddau, coesau, traed. - Heads, shoulders, knees and toes.

We ended the assembly with a whole school rendition of Mr Hapus ydw i with Miss Craven playing the ukulele! Miss Craven challenged all the children to use more welsh today in their greetings to both children and adults. We look forward to hearing that the children have shared their use of welsh at home - please ask your child to tell you what welsh phrases, words or songs they know!

World Mental Health Day

Monday 10th October was World Mental Health Day and as a school all children took part in activities and learning focussed around mental health and wellbeing. World Mental Health Day is all about a chance to talk and pupils were encouraged to discuss their feelings as part of their class sessions.

School Photographs

Individual child photos have been sent home with children today. Please follow the instructions on the paperwork to order directly with Tempest.

PTA

Thank you to the nursery and reception parents that took the time to pop into school on Tuesday to meet our PTA members. We are fortunate to have an active and supportive PTA and we hope that parents get involved and meet new friends in our school community.

School Disco

The PTA are delighted to be offering an autumn disco for all pupils on October 25th . Tickets are priced at £2.50 and can be ordered via the google form below. Payment should be made on entry into the discos. Each year group are allocated a timeslot and tickets are allocated on a first come first served basis due to the capacity of the main hall. Children may wear fancy dress or party clothes.

You will need to complete a separate form for every child you wish to purchase a ticket for. The PTA are hoping to be paperless so will not be sending tickets home. Please keep your email to hand and show this to gain entry to the disco.

Drinks, sweets and snacks will be available to purchase at the disco.

Disco Ticket Application Form

Christmas Wreath Making - date to be confirmed

Parents Evening

Parents Evenings will be held after half term and bookings for parents in recpetion to year 6 are now live. If you haven;t received an email with a link to book please contact us on ask@oldcastleprimary.co.uk. The booking process is handled by our website and emails will be sent from notifications@primarysite.co.uk.

Please remember that you are offered an opportunity to book either an in person or phone appointment with the class teacher. This information has been emailed to parents - below is a reminder of the days of the appointments for each class as well as a reminder if these are in person or by phone. Bookings are on a first come first served basis and we cannot allocate any further in person or phone appointments once these are booked.

Reception

• RO Wednesday 16th November - in person or Thursday 17th November - phone

• RL Wednesday 16th November - phone or Thursday 17th November - in person

Year 1

• 1C Wednesday 9th November - phone or Thursday 10th November - in person

• 1D Wednesday 9th November - in person or Thursday 10th November - phone

Year 2

• 2A Tuesday 15th November - phone or Wednesday 16th November - in person

• 2S Tuesday 15th November - in person or Wednesday 16th November - phone

Year 3

• 3E Monday 14th November - in person or Tuesday 15th November - phone

• 3T Monday 14th November - phone or Tuesday 15th November - in person

Year 4

• 4P Wednesday 9th November - in person or Thursday 10th November - phone

• 4R Wednesday 9th November - phone or Thursday 10th November - in person

Year 5

• 5I Monday 14th November - in person or Tuesday 15th November - phone

• 5M Monday 14th November - phone or Tuesday 15th November - in person

Year 6

• 6Y Wednesday 9th November - in person or Thursday 10th November - phone

• 6H Wednesday 9th November - phone or Thursday 10th November - in person

Nursery appointments will be held week beginning 21st November and these will be released to parents in the last week of term.

Enrichment

Friday afternoons are all about enrichment sessions. Children are excited about the different activities they take part in and always look forward to a Friday afternoon (although that could also be because its chippy Friday in the canteen!

In Enrichment this week and last week, Reception have been making Autumn wreaths.

Pupil Voice

This week has been incredibly busy for all of the students. We have introduced our new Eco committee and Criw Cymraeg. Today all the house captains have been busy at work counting all the tokens up , all week the pupil voice has been going around classes finding out which end of term rewards people would like. We have introduced clubs at lunch and break time play such as origami club, skipping, football, badminton and tennis and obstacle courses.

Flo, Layla, Seren, Lottie.

Welly Boot Appeal

We encourage our children to learn outside whenever suitable and possible and we are appealing for donations of welly boots. Our pupil voice have created a poster to ask parents to help - see below.

School Swimming

Swimming lessons are offered to children in years 4, 5 and 6 over the autumn term.

Year 4 will swim every afternoon for a period of two weeks on the following dates:

• 4R - week beginning 17th October and 24th October

Year 5 will swim every afternoon for a period of one week on the following dates:

• 5I - week beginning 14th November

• 5M - week beginning 21st November

Year 6 will swim every afternoon for a period of one week on the following dates:

• 6Y - week beginning 28th November

• 6H - week beginning 5th December

Children will be required to bring a packed lunch on these days along with their swimming kit, towel and goggles. The bus will collect them from school and take them to Ynysawdre Pool and then bring them back to school in time for the end of the normal school day.

Schools Cross Country - Years 3 to 6

The Bridgend Schools’ Cross Country League is returning this half term. Arrangements are as follows:

1. 4 races available to pupils in years 3 to 6

2. First race begins at 10am so arrive by 9.30am

3. No dogs or smoking (or heaven forbid smoking dogs)

The schedule of meets prior to Christmas is as follows:

• Saturday October 22^nd – Bryntirion Comprehensive School

• Saturday November 26^th – Brynteg Comprehensive School

• Saturday December 17^th – Porthcawl Comprehensive School

PE Days

Children should wear P.E. kit to school on the day their class has a P.E. session.

• Reception - Monday

• Year 1 - Tuesday

• Year 2 - Monday

• Year 3 - Tuesday

• Year 4 - Wednesday

• Year 5 - Thursday

• Year 6 - Wednesday

Headlice

Please can we ask that parents check their children for headlice this weekend. Thank you for your support.

Coat Donations

We have a number of coats that have been left behind and ended up in lost property. Parents have been notified that lost property is filling up and have been invited to check for lost items. We still have a vast amount and these coats will now be offered to parents - the coats will be available to view on Monday after school in the main foyer area - please come and have a look if you require a coat - the coats are free to a good home.

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.

Parent Netball Sessions

Please read on to find out more about a parent netball session being run by parents.

ALL WELCOME (from novice to experienced)

We have high hopes of starting a parent netball team after half-term. Initially running every other Wednesday after school for an hour.

Our aim is to have fun whilst achieving a level of fitness, meeting new friends and gaining netball skills through practice and competing in competitions.

Anyone interested please WhatsApp the following numbers;

Jacque 07511990386 or Gemma 07812130408

Text 'interested' and your name and we will confirm start dates. Look forward to seeing you!

No Smoking / Vaping

Please can we remind parents and carers that we are a no smoking school and this also includes vaping. Although we cannot police the area outside of school premises we do ask that parents are mindful of smoking / vaping near the school gates.

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.

Inset Days 2022 / 23

Inset days for this academic year are as follows:

• Monday 5th September 2022

• Monday 7th November 2022

• Tuesday 8th November 2022

• Friday 31st March 2023

• Friday 26th May 2023

• Monday 24th July 2023

Term Dates

• Last day of term for this half term is Friday 28th October.

• Autumn Term finishes on Friday 23rd December 2022.

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 01443849944

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

Year 1 had a lovely talk with one of our staff members, Mrs Ali, this morning. She shared how she celebrates as a Muslim and showed the children lots of beautiful clothes and jewellery- they even got to sample delicious food. Thank you Mrs Ali!

Year 2 have been learning about pollinators and the life cycle of a plant. They enjoyed looking at which flowers bees like best and then making packet for seeds to go in. They had to include the name of the flower and the price of the seeds on the packet. Great work Year 2.

Mrs Evans also showed year 2 a winter bee hive that her father lent us. She explained that in the winter bees need to use a smaller hive to stay warm and that the male bees are pushed out by the female bees! She also told the class that it’s the male bees that sting and that’s why we don’t get as many stings in the winter because the females have pushed them out of the hive and they die!

Year 4 have completed a hot seating literacy lesson where we met Hogarth the farmer from the story The Iron Man. The children asked questions asking how he felt when he saw the man for the first time

Reception have been making potions. The children were challenged to think of the important qualities that we value in our family members and create a magic family potion.

During Reception literacy session, the children were challenged to mark-make and write underneath the tables. This challenge helps us to build a strong core and strong arms to make us excellent writers.