Welcome back to school. We wish all our parents and carers a happy new year!  

We hope you enjoyed the break from school, it was lovely to see our families returning to school on Monday.  We are already back into the usual school routine with children getting straight into learning.  We look forward to sharing details of this learning with you in our weekly newsletter.

Today in assembly pupils from year 2 and year 4 shared their learning on their current topic. Year 2 showed how they had learnt about their topic 'Sunrise to Stardust' and year 4 looked at the earths layers as part of their topic 'What in the World'. This term, our overarching theme is Global Environment. Year 4's earth layers looked like a yummy ice cream sundae!

School Communication

Don't forget to make sure we have correct contact details for you.  We communicate with parents via our website to send email and use The School App. If you haven;t downloaded the School App please take a look in the Play Store or App store.  Once registered we can confirm your registration to ensure you receive messages relating to your child's class.  

Google for Education

We are proud to be a Google for Education school and pleased that our children have access to a range of different learning opportunities.  Children in years 3 to 6 have access to a 1 to 1 chromebook and use these daily to complete work and research topics.  The Google for Education platform provides a range of apps which children use.  All apps are monitored by the school, and access is strictly limited to what is deemed to be appropriate for children. 

School Attendance

This week you have received a letter detailing your child's attendance percentage from September.  Improving school attendance is a priority for us in Oldcastle, just as it is across BCBC and Wales. We issued details of the new protocols earlier this week along with flow charts that explain the process.  If you want to find out more about how we monitor school attendance please view the Attendance Pages on our website. The school will send out Attend to Achieve Letters 3 times a year. These are factual and based on the attendance levels of your child. 

Attendance

We are committed to promoting good attendance at school and have a target of whole school attendance of 95%.  This week's attendance was 94.2%.

Christmas Trees

We wanted to let parents know that the real Christmas trees we displayed in December will be re-used as part of our outdoor learning sessions with Mr Murdoch.  During the Spring, Mr Murdoch will use the wood and the leaves of the trees.  We look forward to sharing photos with you later in the term. 

National Storytelling Week

In 2025, National Storytelling Week will be taking place from Saturday 1 February to Sunday 9 February. 

This fantastic annual event is a joyful celebration of the power of sharing stories. Stories teach us about the world, they allow us to step into someone else’s shoes and feel empathy, they help us to relax and escape and they can help develop essential literacy skills. 

The theme for National Storytelling Week 2025 is ‘Reimagine your world’. Whether it’s something unexpected on a walk in the park, odd sounds you hear at night, or a path you’ve never followed, the world around us is full of secret lives, places and possibilities. The most extraordinary story can come from the most ordinary place: it just needs someone to find it. 

Please click here for more information.  National Storytelling Week.

School Cross Country Event for years 3 to 6

The next school cross country events have been confirmed as follows.  The event is open to anyone from years 3 to 6 with all events starting on 10am.

• Saturday 18th January - Porthcawl Comprehensive School

• Saturday 15th February - Pencoed Comprehensive School

• Saturday 8th March - CCYD

School Admissions

Applications to nursery from September 2025 are now open and can be completed via the Bridgend County Borough Council website.  The timetable for admissions to full-time nursery places starting in September 2025 is for children born between 1 September 2021 and 31 August 2022. 

Part-time admissions for children starting in January 2026 or April 2026 are also open.  (January 2026 – children born between 1 September 2022 and 31 December 2022 or April 2026 – children born between 1 January 2023 and 31 March 2023) 

Children who will be starting Reception in September 2025 will also need to apply for a place and this application process has been open since November.  The deadline is 14th February.

Applications for children moving to Secondary School are also open and these applications should be completed by 17th January 2025. 

All applications can be completed by following this link School Applications.

Parents may find the following links helpful.

• Behaviour Support Hub – Visit website

• Early Help Services – Visit website

• Silver Cloud (Mental Health Support) – Visit website

Community Invitation

As the colder days settle in, we understand that staying warm can be both challenging and costly. With this in mind, we are pleased to remind you of the resources available at our school to support our community during this time of year.

We have a welcoming community room within the school where you are invited to come and spend some time during the day. The room is warm and cosy, providing a comfortable space to sit, read a book, connect to our Wi-Fi, and even make yourself a cup of tea. Whether you prefer to come alone for some quiet time or bring along a friend for a chat, the room is open to everyone from drop-off in the morning to pick-up in the afternoon.

In addition to the community room, we are excited to announce a new initiative starting next Tuesday. After morning drop-off, we will offer tea and toast in our main hall for anyone who would like to pop in for a chat and a warm drink. Some weeks, we will even serve sausage sandwiches! This is a wonderful opportunity to connect with other parents and carers while enjoying a little extra comfort to start your day.

We truly want our families to feel welcome and make the most of our school facilities, especially during this season when managing heating costs can be a significant concern. Whether you are looking for a place to stay warm, some good company, or just a change of scenery, our doors are open to you.

Thank you for being part of our school community. We hope to see many of you taking advantage of these resources in the coming weeks.

Food Pantry

We had a wide range of new foods available in our food pantry this week There were plenty of items for everyone so please do make use of the pantry.  All you need to do is register at main reception (membership costs £1) and bring a bag to help yourself to 15 items for £5.

Partnership with Swansea University

We partner with Swansea University for a number of projects and we are looking forward to a new partnership with the university for a new research project.  Children in 6R and 5T will work with Swansea University to look at outdoor learning and research techniques.  The partnership with Swansea University will train these pupils to become young researchers. They’ll learn how to ask meaningful questions, gather and analyse data, and use their findings to drive change. We look forward to developing this project with the aim of further implementing techniques across other classes. 

• September - Respect and Responsibility 

• October - Compassion and Hope 

• November - Friendship and Forgiveness 

• December - Understanding and Patience

• January - Determination and Perseverance

• February - Honesty and Trust 

• March -Learning and Effort 

• April - Community and Service 

• May - Co-operation and being a good citizen within society

• June- Showing Gratitude and Care and Generosity

• July - Taking and managing risks 

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

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. 

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.  

Please let us know of any success that pupils may have achieved outside of school.

The next Parents Evenings meetings are planned for week beginning 24th March 2025.

Inset Days 2024/25

• Monday 2nd September 2024

• Friday 6th December 2024

• Friday 21st February 2025

• Friday 11th April 2025

• Monday 2nd June 2025

• Monday 21st July 2025

Health and Wellbeing / PE Days

• Nursery - Thursday

• Reception -  Wednesday

• Year 1 - Monday

• Year 2 - Tuesday

• Year 3 - Friday

• Year 4 - Friday

• Year 5 - Friday

• Year 6 - Friday

Enrichment

This week in nursery

We were delighted to welcome the children after the Christmas break, they settled back into our routines very well and were pleased to see their friends. This week we have been exploring our outdoor environment and learning about living and non-living things, learning about the parts of a tree and have been practising a new song, “The Green Grass Grows All Around”. We have been practising our sounds, m, a, s and t, and are beginning to form the letters.

Bridgend Fire Station visit

Year 2 had a visit from Bridgend Fire Station today who talked to the children about fire safety.  The children loved trying on the fire uniform. Thank you for your support and visiting Bridgend Fire Brigade!

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.