Estyn Inspection

Before Christmas we shared with you a copy of our Estyn Inspection report.  The report findings have been used to shape our School Improvement Plan to continue making improvements to  Oldcastle Primary School.  

One of the most heartening aspects of the report was the recognition of our school community. The inspectors highlighted the positive relationships and supportive environment that we've cultivated here at Oldcastle Primary. This is a testament to the collective effort of our pupils, staff, parents, and the wider community. Your ongoing support and engagement are invaluable, and we are grateful for your contribution to making our school such a special place.

To celebrate and share some of the highlights from the report, we've put together a visual display featuring key quotes and findings. These images capture the essence of what makes Oldcastle Primary unique and showcase the areas where we truly excel. We hope you enjoy.

Charity Fashion Show - Tickets on sale now!

We are excited to announce that this year our school is proud to support one of the Mayor of Bridgend's chosen charities, Y Bont. Y Bont is an incredible organisation that supports children with complex medical needs, disabilities, or additional needs.

To support this fantastic cause, we are hosting a Charity Night on February 21st in the school hall. The evening will feature a performance by our school choir, Côr Merched Bro Ogwr and a fabulous fashion show in collaboration with Venetia Steele, a local boutique.

We are reaching out to ask if any parents can support this event. You can help by:

• Donating items for the raffle.

• Assisting with hair and makeup for the fashion show participants.

Your involvement will make this event truly special and help us raise funds for Y Bont’s vital work. If you can assist, please contact the school office by Friday, 24th January

Tickets for the Charity Event are available from the school office or Venetia Steele boutique and cost £15 per person.  This will include a glass of prosecco on arrival and a high tea.

Thank you for your support. Together, we can make a difference!

Our PTA will be supporting the event and arranging a licensed bar.  We are very grateful to our PTA for their support.

Community Invitation

Don't forget to pop into our Community Room and enjoy a warm drink and warm up in this cold weather.

We were delighted to launch our Tea and Toast session last Tuesday.  We look forward to welcoming parents and carers every Tuesday morning to enjoy a cuppa and a chat.

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.

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 95.8%.

School Cross Country Event for years 3 to 6

Well done to the years 3 to 6 children who took part in the Schools Cross Country competition last weekend. The next event will take place at Pencoed Comprehensive School on Saturday 15th February. 

• Saturday 8th March - CCYD

Year 6 

Big thank you to Oldcastle Primary PTA who funded a hoodie for every child in year 6. Children have had their leavers hoodies this week ready for their residential and non-residential activities. 

Year 6 Residential

Children and staff have had a brilliant time on residential in Culmington Manor this week.  It's been a cold and muddy trip but there have been lots of lovely memories made and smiling faces.  Thank you to the staff who gave up their time to ensure the children had an amazing experience.  We've been sharing some lovely photos of the children on our school Facebook page but here's a taster of the trip.  To view more please check our out click this link  Facebook Page 

Year 6 Non-Residential

The children who did not wish to go on residential have had an exciting time too.  They worked with their teachers to come up with a list of activities they wanted to do.  Children and staff have been swimming, spent time in the park, took a bus to McArthur Glen, watched a film, had some food, went shopping for ingredients and made pizzas!  Here's a taster of their photos - more photos are available on the school Facebook page.

Parent Teachers Association 

Just a reminder that everyone who is a parent of a child in Oldcastle is automatically a member of the PTA.  We do encourage parents to become involved in the PTA and this can be through a variety of ways.  Volunteering to help out at events, supporting the preparation for events, helping with fundraising and grant funding, or simply just providing ideas!  If you would like more information on our PTA please look at the details on our website.  Oldcastle PTA

We are delighted to let you know of some exciting PTA events coming up for you and and your children.

• Thursday 6th February - PTA meeting - this is an opportunity for parents to attend and find out more about events the PTA have planned and how you can get involved.  Feedback will also be provided on ways in which the PTA have supported the school in recent months. We hope you can come along.  The meeting will be held in school at 5.30pm.

• Friday 14th February - Cake Sale after school.  We hope bakers can support our cake sale and provide us with some amazing creations.  We will accept any cakes or biscuits all we ask is that you provide a list of ingredients and avoid nut products.  There will be a £50 Amazon for the best cake!  We invite all our parents, carers and children to enjoy the cake sale after school on Valentine's Day.

• Friday 21st February - Charity Fashion Show supported by the PTA

• Friday 9th May - proposed date for a PTA Disco. More information soon.

• Saturday 5th July - Oldcastle Rocks. Always a highlight in our school year as we bring the community together to enjoy some fantastic music and entertainment.

Take a look at the PTA Facebook page to keep up to date with events. Oldcastle Primary PTA Facebook Page 

Class Newsletters

Earlier this week we emailed parents and carers with links to their child's class newsletter. The newsletter will provide you with an overview of your child's learning this term.  The newsletters can be viewed on our website.

Class Newsletters

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.

Wear Red for Velindre

We are delighted to support the Wear Red for Velindre campaign again this year.  Children may wear red to school on Friday 31st January. We will be collecting money for the cancer charity if you would like to support.

This fun campaign invites schools, businesses, and individuals across Wales to wear something red and donate £1 to support Velindre and cheer on our international rugby teams as they kick off their opening Six Nations match. 

Parents may find the following links helpful.

• Behaviour Support Hub – Visit website

• Early Help Services – Visit website

• Silver Cloud (Mental Health Support) – Visit website

Food Pantry 

The food pantry has been really busy over the last few weeks. We are very grateful to receive extra funding towards the food pantry that allows us to purchase fresh food and other items including toiletries, nappies, etc.  From next week, our delivery from Baobab Bach will take place on a Monday.

We hope you can make use of the pantry, simply pop into main reception and we will sign you up.  It's a one off membership charge of £1, and £5 for 15 items. All we ask is that you limit the resh meat items to no more than 2 to allow everyone to benefit.  Take a look at the video below to get an idea of the types of items that are in the food pantry - please note items will vary.

Uniform Swap Shop

Don't forget we have plenty of pre-loved uniforms available for parents to help themselves. The uniform is free of charge and is located on clothing rails in main reception. Please pop in and take a look. We also have an ever growing mountain of lost property - please do call in to check if your child is missing an item.

• 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.  

Congratulations to Heidi from year 6 who has had a busy couple of weeks competing in squash competitions.   Over the new year she travelled to Birmingham to compete in the British Junior Squash Open . This is the biggest junior competition in the world so a prestigious competition to be part of. Heidi played really well winning 3 and losing 2 of her matches.  Last weekend she competed in the Welsh Closed competition.

Baobab Bach - Ty Penybont - Volunteers Required!

Baobab Bach have a community garden at Ty Penybont on Methyr Mawr Road and would be grateful for any volunteers that would be able to help wth their gardening space.  The large area has an allotment and greenhouses and they aim to grow fresh vegetables and fruit to use in their food pantries.  If you are interested in helping out please give Roberta a call 07544026265. 

For more information on Baobab Bach please look at their website Home - Baobab Bach CIC - Sustainable Communities 

Bridgend Town Council Warm Space Initiative

Circuit Training Class

Parents may be interested in the following https://www.facebook.com/share/1DEJpSaB5G/ 

• Friday 31st January - Wear Red for Wales

• Thursday 6th February - PTA meeting in school at 5.30pm

• Friday 14th February - PTA Cake Sale

• Friday 9th May - Proposed PTA Disco

• Saturday 5th July - Oldcastle Rocks

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

This week in nursery

This week in the Nursery we have been planting cress seeds, we knew that they needed water and sunshine to grow.  We have also been measuring pictures of sunflowers using cubes and counting how many cubes tall they were. We enjoyed playing in the mud kitchen, pretending to plant and looked for living and non living things. We enjoyed some yoga and sat beautifully and listened to the instructions.

We are also delighted that our new Rising 3 children have settled in so well.  They have enjoyed joining in with all of our activities and making new friends.

Enrichment

Year 4

Year 4 did some exciting science experiments this week to test the flow of water through different soils.  

Year 4 have been busy this week - here they are using battleships to master their coordinates skills 

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.