We hope that all our families had a lovely Easter break.  This week has been a very busy one as we head into this short term.  Children have enjoyed house colour rewards and enjoyed the warmer weather.  

Please remember Monday is a bank holiday and school will be closed.    We hope you enjoy the long weekend. See you back in school on Tuesday.

We have a number of activities  next week so please read on for more information.

VE Day - Celebrations at Oldcastle Primary School

We are looking forward to our VE Day celebrations on Thursday, 8th May 2025.  On the day we will commemorate the 80th anniversary of VE Day, marking eight decades of peace since the end of World War II in Europe.  Children will be enjoying a street party themed event and we have entertainers lined up to thrill the and educate them about times gone by.  We are very grateful to our PTA for arranging these for our children.

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. Please keep it simple and be mindful of the weather on the day.  Children will enjoy the entertainment and packed lunches outside (we hope!) so please bear this in mind with outfits.

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. 9.30am to 10.30am Session 2 - Thursday 8th May 2025 Time: 9.30am to 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.

Schools Cross Country  Presentation - Years 3 to 6

The Schools Cross Country presentation / fund day will take place ion Saturday 10th May at 10am in Pencoed Comprehensive School. 

The morning will follow the usual format of our age group races with medals for boys and girls in our age groups, year's 3/4 + 5/6. As in previous fun days, we will have separate races, to acknowledge the efforts of boys and girls that have competed for their schools and have not managed to have been within the top ten finishers during the season. 

Immediately after the fun races, we will proceed with the season's league presentations, with trophies for the first three Individual and School Team winners from each age group.

School Uniform During Warmer Weather

As the weather warms up, please can we remind parents that children should dress appropriately to attend school.  We ask that short shorts and vest t-shirts are not worn to school. The 'Nike Pro' style shorts are not suitable for school. We also discourage the wearing of sandals.   Thank you for your support.

Rugby Tournament

Next week some members of our rugby team will be representing the school at a rugby tournament in the Brewery Fields.  Good luck to those who are playing - we look forward to hearing all about the event next week.

Attend to Achieve

As you know, improving school attendance is a priority for us in Oldcastle, just as it is across BCBC and Wales. This week we sent out Attend to Achieve Letters for your child's attendance for the first two terms of the year. These are factual and based upon the attendance levels of your child.  For more information on our Attendance Procedures please click here - School Attendance.

Staffing Update

This week Mrs Taylor Jones started her maternity leave.  Good luck Mrs Taylor Jones and keep us posted on your new arrival.  Miss Tompkisnon will teach 6R from next week alongside Miss James. 

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 94.4%.

Forthcoming PTA events

• Don't forget it's the PTA Disco on Friday 9th May.  Tickets have been pre-ordered and payment should be made in cash on the door. The PTA will have a range of sweets and drinks available to purchase at each disco.  Once again, we are grateful to our PTA for arranging the discos and raising funds for the school.  If you have offered to help out at the disco please make yourself known to a member of the PTA at the event. Here's a reminder of the disco times:

Nursery & Reception - 3pm to 3.45pm

Year 1 & Year 2 - 4pm to 4.45pm

Year 3 & Year 4 - 5pm - 5.45pm

Years 5 & Year 6 - 6pm to 6.45pm

• 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 - Years 1 to 6

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.   Children will need to wear PE Kit and bring weather appropriate clothes with them.  We will make a decision at 7.30am on the day of the sports day following an inspection of the athletics track and a review of the weather forecast. 

Children in years 4, 5 and 6 will need a packed lunch on the day.  Under the Universal free school meal provision children can be provided with a free packed lunch.  Parents in these year groups have been emailed a link to order a free packed lunch.  Please complete by Tuesday 6th May.

Sports Day - Nursery and Reception

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

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.

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.

• 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.  

Showjumping Success

Well done to Beatrice from year 3 and Lottie from year 6 who took part in their first ever (internal) showjumping competition at Liege Manor Equestrian Centre last Friday. They were placed out of 16 competitors - 4th and 6th! 

Tennis Success

Congratulations to Chloe C from year 1 who won the girls 8 & under and Jonah P from year 2 who won the boys 8 & under and 11 & under competitions in the Easter tennis competition at Bridgend Tennis Club

Poetry Success

Well done to Megan from year 6 who received a Wales Young Poets Award recently. Megan has received First Place in the Wales Young Poets Award: English 10-13 age category Megan's poem will now be published in Poetry Wales magazine, her first publication credit.

The poem is as follows: (It was on the theme of 'peace')

Peace 

Peace is a wolf howling at the violet moon,

eclipsed by angel-white clouds.

It is a fifth season with snow 

on a summer’s morning, 

an iridescent peacock feather 

descending from the air.

It is a sunburnt daffodil,

the smell of lavender in the breeze,

a lantern-lit canoe

during a meteor shower.

It is the wingbeats of several birds, 

waves turning into mist.

It is our memories becoming the rings of Saturn,

secrets burrowing into the darkness.

Kickboxing Success

Mila from year 5 had a busy time recently winning two gold medals in Kickboxing.  She definitely wins the prize for the biggest medals!  Well done Mila we love to hear of your kickboxing successes.

Squash News

Heidi from year 6 had an amazing experience for her first time playing squash for Wales in the 5 Nations Junior team Squash Championships in Nantes. Heidi won all 3 of the  matches she played. Well done to the team for achieving bronze.

• 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

Rewards Day

Nursery

This week in the Nursery we are delighted to welcome our new Rising 3s, they have settled in well and have enjoyed their first week at Oldcastle.  This week we have been exploring the concept of one more and have been discussing our favourite toys as part of our new concept.   We have also been practising for our Sports Day.

Year 2

Following the introduction to their new book, Rosie Revere, Engineer year 2 have been designing and building bridges in our literacy this week and talking about them .  The children were challenged to think aboout - Have the designs worked? Are they strong enough? What could we do to improve our bridges  Looks like great fun.

Year 4 

Year 4 set up their own experiment to collect data for creating line graphs. They timed at regular intervals and weighed the ice cube, plotting the changes in weight. 

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.