What a busy term we have had in Oldcastle Primary School.   Our school has been filled with the buzz of learning, echoing the dedication and enthusiasm of our pupils and staff alike.

It has been fantastic to see the outstanding work produced by our pupils across all year groups.  As we look ahead to the summer term, we anticipate exciting educational opportunities and community events. Our calendar is brimming with exciting events, including our much-anticipated sports day, an enlightening careers week, and the poignant year 6 leavers' arrangements. 

We hope that our parents and carers enjoyed the opportunity to view your child's work in the recent parent's evening appointments.  We are grateful to parents and carers for your ongoing support and engagement.

Don't forget we are closed to pupils on Friday 11th April for an Inset Day.  We  hope you enjoy the Easter holidays taking time to relax, and we look forward to seeing our pupils and families on Monday, 28th April.

Careers Week - Please share with any contacts you may have

In June we will be holding our fourth Careers Week where we will invite visitors into school to tell us all about their job.  We launched Careers Week in 2022 and were overwhelmed with the support we received and the children absolutely loved learning about different career options.

Our aim is to inspire and educate our children and enthuse them about the array of different jobs that can be done.  We are hoping that we can encourage our community to get involved in our Careers Week by coming along to school and talking or demonstrating what you do in your job.  If you cannot visit but are able to support us in another way, for instance a pre recorded session or other support, please let us know via the Google Form below. We are looking for a range of different job roles to enthuse our children and this is the type of information we think would be useful :

• Explain what your job is and what your day-to-day responsibilities.

• How long have you worked in this job?

• What do you love the most about your job?

• When did you decide you wanted to work in this job role?

• Did you have to do any training for your job role?

• Was there something you learnt/did at school or someone that inspired you to pursue this line of work?

• Practical display - ie show something about your job or do a display, for instance, flower arranging - florist

We are looking for a wide variety of career / job options that will inspire our children.  If you can help out please let us know by completing and submitting this form.

Careers Week Google Form

If you require further information please get in touch with Sara Peters, Grants, Media and Health and Safety Manager on 01656 815790.

Year 6 Housing Development Project

It has been a big day for Year 6 with the culmination of our housing development project. The pupils have worked for the last 10 weeks collaboratively in pairs to design a housing brand and put together a hypothetical housing development situated in Bridgend. Children were tasked with ensuring the housing development was sustainable, protected from floods, provided for the community and took account of opinions from the wider community. Year 6  took part in a session with valleys to Coast last week as part of the project where they learnt about regeneration and involving the community in housing projects. 

The children and staff have also been lucky enough to work with Wilmott Dixon who came in today to listen to the children's pitches and act as judges. A big thankyou to Wilmott Dixon for their participation in the project, allowing us to visit their working site and providing support to year 6 throughout, we are all incredibly grateful! 

Finally, to Year 6, we are so proud of each and every one of you for the hard work you have put in and the professional manner in which you undertook delivering your pitches today. our visitors have been blown away so well done! 

After a lot of deliberation, Wilmott Dixon selected Abigail and Ed for their overall project with the following runners up Sophie A, Harry, Vicki, Aled, Robyn and Ella.

Year 6 Leavers Arrangements

Year 6 parents please check your emails as you have been sent information relating to the year 6 leavers celebrations that will take place in the summer term. Please get in touch if you have not received the information.

Online Safety - Invitation to Parents

We are excited to invite you to our upcoming ‘Online Safety Learning Event’. The event aims to encourage thinking about child development and their common use of social media, mobile apps, and device habits while highlighting the increasing risks posed to children by the online and digital world. The event will be run by Matthew Jones, Digital Lead Officer for BCBC.

Date: Session 1 - Tuesday 6th May 2025. Session 2 - Thursday 8th May 2025 Time: 9:30am-10:30am

The parent/carer online safety learning session will cover:

• Mobile apps children are commonly using.

• Mobile apps to be aware of and those that pose risks.

• Mobile app age-restriction settings.

• Are children ready for social media and over-aged apps (consequences, responsibilities, digital footprint)?

• The risks of under-aged children using social media

• The concerns for Bridgend children who are engaged in inappropriate online behaviour.

• How to report and remove harmful content.

• Family agreements for our devices and our time spent online.

• How these link to the Curriculum for Wales.

Attend to Achieve

As you know, improving school attendance is a priority for us in Oldcastle, just as it is across BCBC and Wales.  After Easter we will send out to all parents the Attend to Achieve Letter for your child's attendance for this term. These are factual and based upon the attendance levels of your child.  For more information on our Attendance Procedures please click here - School Attendance.

Weekly 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 96.8%.

VE Day - Celebrations at Oldcastle Primary School

Thank you to everyone that filled in the google form to let us know if you required a packed lunch on VE Day.  These have now been ordered with our Catering team.

On Thursday, 8th May 2025, we will commemorate the 80th anniversary of VE Day, marking eight decades of peace since the end of World War II in Europe. Oldcastle Primary has planned a day of celebrations with a street party held within the school grounds, where our pupils will have the chance to immerse themselves in the atmosphere of that historic day.

We are encouraging all pupils and staff to embrace the spirit of the occasion by dressing up as in outfits from the 1940’s - ie simple dresses, shorts, dungarees, dai caps etc. We will provide examples to parents in the coming weeks but there are lots of simple outfit choices. Throughout the day, pupils will be treated to a variety of entertainment and activities, all designed to recreate the sense of community and shared joy that characterised the original celebrations.

To mark the occasion, we will be holding a flag-raising ceremony at the main entrance of the school at 9 a.m. We extend a warm invitation to all parents and carers to join us for this poignant moment, as we pay tribute to those who fought for our freedom and reflect on the enduring peace that followed.

Forthcoming PTA events

• Friday 9th May - PTA Disco.  Tickets are £2.50 each and payment should be made on the door - cash only.

• 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 

Sports Days

Sports Day for children in years 1 to 6 will be held on Friday 16th May in the Athletics Track in Newbridge Fields.  Children in years 1 to 3 will complete their events in the morning and years 4 to 6 in the afternoon.   

Sports Day for children in nursery and reception is now confirmed for Friday 23rd May in the afternoon.  The event will take place in Heronsbridge School.   We will walk the children to Heronsbridge at 12.30pm and we are hoping parents / grandparents can walk with your child.  If this is not possible please let us know. Children may leave with parents / carers at the end of the event which will finish by 2.45pm.

House Colour t-shirts

The PTA have an arrangement with a local company who are able to provide sports day t-shirts at a reasonable price and will provide a 10% donation to the PTA from all sales.  If you would like to buy a house colour t-shirt please follow this link.  Parents may, of course, buy T-shirts from any supplier.

House Colour T-shirts - Euroschools

We are also looking to add hoodies to the website.  We will let you know when these are added.

After School Club and Late Club Prices Increase from 1st September 2025

The following information has been emailed to all users of the after school and late club facility. Following a review of our Afterschool and Late Club provision, we find it necessary to make some adjustments to our pricing structure. The increase in fees is due to increases in our operating costs and will allow us to continue to offer the service you expect both now and into the future.

Prices will increase from 1st of September 2025 

• Afterschool Club will increase to £9.00 per session

• Late Club will increase to £2.50 per session

We thank you for your ongoing support and trust that these changes will help us to continue providing you with the service.  Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the school office.

• 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.  

Netball Success

Well done to Fara,  Effie, Heidi, Bette and Lottie who all represented their respective clubs at a Netball Tournament last weekend.  

Past pupil success

Last month past pupil Lewis, now in year 8 in Brynteg, was selected to represent Wales in a National Cross country competition in Falkirk, Scotland. His running journey started with the primary school cross country races and the junior park run. On the 26th of April he will run for Wales again in the junior marathon in London.   Well done Lewis great to hear of your running successes! Good luck in the junior London marathon.

Good luck to Bethan in year 4 who is performing in  Finding Nemo over the Easter holidays.

Sunday Afternoon Theatre Club

The Bridge Community Hub

We hope parents will find the following information helpful.

Bridgend Library

Bridgend library are starting up a brand new comic book club for young people aged 10-14, it's going to be a free club to encourage and support young people to read and write their own comics, animé and create art for them! It will run on the first Tuesday of every month starting May 6th 2025. 

Knit and Stitch in Dunelm Mill

• Friday 11th April - Inset Day

• Monday 14th April - Easter holiday begins

• Monday 28th  April - Term Starts

• Monday 5th May - Bank Holiday

• Thursday 8th May - VE Day Celebrations

• Friday 9th May - PTA Disco

• Friday 16th May - Sports Day Years 1 to 6

• Monday 26th May to Friday 30th May - Half Term

• Monday 2nd June - Inset Day

• Tuesday 10th June - Class and Team Photos

• Saturday 5th July - Oldcastle Rocks

• Friday 18th July Term Ends

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

Year 6 End of Term Production

Very excited to announce that our year 6 end of year production this year will be Grease …. Over the last few weeks we have been announcing individual cast members. This week we have announced who will be playing the parts of Doody, Sonny, Roger, Miss Lynch, Cha Cha and a Narrator. 

This week in Nursery

This week in the Nursery we have had lots of fun.  We have been making chocolate Easter nests but we have been talking about how the chocolate is a solid but once we heated it in the microwave it became a liquid.  We have also been on an Easter Egg hunt, the eggs had numbers on them and then we sorted them.  We have had a very busy term, and learnt so much.

Year 3

In Numeracy and Maths this week, year 3 have been playground designers. They have been learning how to measure accurately using metres and centimetres, and have designed a new yard, considering where objects might fit and what the children of Oldcastle might enjoy. They then calculated the area and perimeter of the objects. Year 3 are definitely budding designers of the future! 

Year 4

To finish off our term, Year 4 made solar ovens and used the sun’s heat to melt chocolate on cookies. They measured temperature change and used their knowledge of solar radiance to ensure they had the warmest oven.  

After School Club Cakes

Year 5 maths lesson outside this morning, working on estimating and timing activities. 

Year 2 

Year 2 enjoyed creating radio broadcasts to end their topic 'Dear Earth'. The children have been learning about plastic pollution and rainforests being cut down and how to use persuasive techniques in literacy.

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.