Remembrance Day

Today, we remembered those that have died as a result of conflict. The whole school congregated on the main yard and stood in silence for two minutes. The short ceremony conducted by Mrs Littlewood reminded pupils why we stand in silence on this day. Seren and Layla from our junior leadership team will represent the school in the children's Remembrance Day ceremony in Bridgend town centre on Saturday.

All children and parents are invited to actively participate in the ceremony by gathering at the top of Wyndham Street from 10.20am in readiness to march to the war memorial in Dunraven Place where Reverend Rachel Wheeler will conduct a short Remembrance Service. We hope to see many of our pupils and parents at the parade.

Start of the new term

Welcome back to the new school term we hope the children enjoyed the two inset days at the start of the week. School staff were busy on the inset days and took part in a variety of training sessions. We now have a busy 7 week term to look forward to with our last day in school being Friday 23rd December.

Big Parliament Week

We were delighted to be filmed for a video to promote the Big Parliament Week recently and we are delighted to share the video with parents and children. Please follow the link below to view the video:

Big Parliament Week Video

School access

Thank you to our parents and children for your understanding in regard of the closure of the St Marie Street entrance. We hope to resolve the health and safety issue soon and be able to reopen the entrance at the earliest opportunity.

Whilst we appreciate the closure of the gate will have an impact on access to the school, please can we remind parents that school starts at 8.55am. Children after 9am will receive a late mark and children arriving after 9.25am will rceive an authorised mark. Thank you for your support in ensuring that children arrive at school ready to start school at 8.55am.

Parking around the school

We have again received complaints from local residents and businesses about parking around school drop off and pick up times. We understand that complaints have been made to BCBC and the local police regarding some of the parking issues. Please can we ask that parents are respectful of the local residents and businesses and only park in designated areas in a safe manner. Thank you for your cooperation.

Child Collection Arrangements

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents and the NSPCC both recommend that no one under 16 years of age should be left to care for a younger child. Whilst there is no minimum age set in law, our school will implement suggested guidance and not routinely release younger children who require collection to anyone under the age of 16. Individual requests to consider a variation to this policy will be considered on its merits and clearly recorded; a parental signature will be required. Without an appropriate authorising signed request, the school will adhere to the guidance as listed above. If you wish an older sibling to collect your child w require confirmation of this arrangement in writing. Please email ask@oldcastleprimary.co.uk to provide consent for an older sibling who is under the age of 16 to collect your child.

Children in Need

We will be supporting Children in Need once again this year and join in with The Great SPOTacular on Friday 18th November !

Our junior leaders will be thinking of lots of exciting ways we can support the charity this year and children will be able to wear their own clothes on Friday 18th November and we will be accepting donations if parents wish to donate.

School Swimming

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

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.

Christmas Concerts

We are delighted to inform parents that we will be inviting parents into school to watch your child's year group perform a Christmas concert. Each year group will perform the concert on two occasions and parents / carers may order two tickets for each performance.

The tickets are free of charge. Due to health and safety reasons, we are limited in the number of people we can seat in the main hall so numbers will be strictly monitored based around the applications received via this form.

Please click on the link below to book your free ticket to the appropriate year group concert.

• Nursery Christmas Concert

• Reception Christmas Concert

• Year 1 Christmas Concert

• Year 2 Christmas Concert

• Year 3 Christmas Concert

• Year 4 Christmas Concert

• Year 5 Christmas Concert

• Year 6 Christmas Concert

Christmas Tree

We want to decorate our main hall in readiness for the Christmas concerts and wanted to ask if anyone is able to help with a donation of a real Christmas tree to add to the Christmas spirit. If you are able to help or know of an organisation that can help please drop us an email - ask@oldcastleprimary.co.uk

Parents Evening

Parents evening appointments are taking place over the next few weeks- below is a reminder of the dates.

Nursery

• Monday 21st November

• Tuesday 22nd November

• Wednesday 23rd November

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 23rd November - phone or Thursday 24th November - in person

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

• Completed

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

• Completed

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

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!

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.

Literacy

This week our Year 1 pupils have launched into their literacy lessons by studying ‘Cave Baby’. They have really enjoyed creating cave paintings and structures to house their prehistoric animals, as well as writing about the animals. Da iawn Year 1

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. What a busy Friday afternoon it was today!

Some pupils in year 4 made a Som-Tum salad - well done year 4.

Year 3 have been looking at germs on their hands today - very interesting and certainly made the children wash their hands effectively!

Reception have been busy making firework pictures.

Well done to Eliza (Year 6) and Heidi (Year 4) who competed in the British Junior Closed squash completion they entered before half term.

They both played amazingly well throughout the competition striving for every point.

Heidi achieved 10th place in the girls U11.

Eliza played her first U13 competition and won three out of four matches and achieved 17th place.

Well done girls!

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 - all term dates are available to view on our website

• 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 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