Junior Leaders

Thank you to the year 5 pupils who have applied to be a junior leader. We are looking forward to the interview process next week.  Good luck to everyone who has applied!

House Captains

We have also received lots of applications for pupils in year 6 to become house captains and we look forward to announcing the results once the voting has taken place. Pob Iwc!

Parents Evening Bookings

You will receive an email today from notifications@primarysite.co.uk containing details of how to book your child's parents' evening appointment.  The appointments will take place week beginning 21st October.  

If you have not received an email please get in touch with us via ask@oldcastleprimary.co.uk

Cooking Session - You are invited!

We would like to invite you into school to take part in a cooking session.  We have been fortunate to link in with a volunteer who has knowledge of creating some exciting cheap and nutritious family food!  We want to help parents learn new easy techniques to prepare some cheap and nutritious meals for your family.  We plan to use some of the food from the food pantry too.

In this first session you will be making scones and discovering new exciting ways to entice your children to eat different food.  We will also be making a simple tomato sauce to top our scones and turn them into pizza! All ingredients and equipment is provided in the session.

We are excited about the cooking session and we hope that you can attend.  Due to the nature of the session the places are limited. The sessions are for adults only.

The session will take place on Thursday 26th September from 9am to 11am.  To book a place please click here - Cooking Session Google Form.

Christmas Card Competition

We have been invited to take part in the annual Chris Elmore Christmas Card competition.  Templates have been sent home with children.  If you have not received one please get in touch with us. 

The lucky winner will have their design showcased to businesses, politicians and community groups.  There is a prize for first, second and third place.  The theme is ‘A Welsh Christmas’. The closing date is Tuesday, 5th November 2024. Please ensure all entries are returned to school by this date. 

Templates will be sent home with children this week to allow them to prepare their designs. Here are some top tips:

• Don’t use glitter as it cannot be reproduced by the printers.

• Don’t make your card too dark.

• 3D cards can’t be reproduced by the printer.

• Make it simple – sometimes less is more.

• If you are drawing a character, make sure he/she fills the space.

• Use bright colours; try not to leave some of the space without colour unless it’s white for snow.

• Stick to the template – it’s important for the printer that the size is the size on the template

• Please keep your design in a landscape format

PTA Disco

The PTA are delighted to announce they are holding a disco on Friday 4th October - Tickets are £2.50 each and this time the PTA will be accepting payment at the door. Please do not send money into school, bring the payment with you on the day. All children need to be supervised whilst at the disco.  

You will need to complete a separate form for every child you wish to purchase a ticket for. The PTA are hoping to be paperless so will not be sending tickets home.  Please keep your email to hand and show this to gain entry to the disco.  The PTA will have a list on the door of all tickets ordered.

Tickets are allocated on a first come first served basis and are limited due to fire regulations. We cannot guarantee entry to anyone who has not pre ordered a ticket.

Drinks, sweets and snacks will be available to purchase at the disco.

Disco Application Form

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%.

Sickness

Please can we remind parents that children should stay off school for 48 hours following their last episode of sickness and diarrhoea. 

Flu Vaccine

The school nursing team will be in school on Thursday, October 24th, to administer the flu vaccine to children in reception to year 6. Consent forms will be sent home shortly, and these should be completed and returned even if you do not wish your child to have the vaccine.

Jewellery

Please can children only wear studs as earrings and not hoop earrings.  Children do not need to wear jewellery to school and we ask that bracelets, rings and other jewellery are not worn to school.

Parking Information from Bridgend County Borough Council

Following on from reports of dangerous parking at drop off and pick -up times at schools in the county borough, we would like to reiterate to parents and carers that it is illegal to park in areas including:

• Schools’ yellow zigzags marking

• Resident parking permit zones

• Double yellow lines

• Pavement parking blocking access to pedestrians

• Other designated parking zones including accessible parking bays

Please be aware that there is a council deployed camera patrol car regularly checking traffic at school times, and parents and carers will receive a fine if necessary.

Visit the BCBC website to read more about parking enforcement in Bridgend County Borough.

• 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.  

Last Saturday Aaron, Boaz and Frankie from year 6 played their first game for Bridgend Schools U11 District rugby team. Well done boys we hear you played brilliantly and did Oldcastle proud. with a great win over a Cardiff team.

Toddler Group

Sadie and Franks

We have been supplied with the following information which may be of interest to you.  Please contact Sadie and Franks if you would like further information. 

• 24th September - Year 6 trip to Swansea University

• 16th October - Individual Child Photos

• 24th October - Flu Vaccine Reception to Year 6 children

• 28th October to 3rd November - October Half Term

• 20th December to 5th January - Christmas Holiday

Parents Evenings are planned for week beginning 21st October 2024 and 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

PE Days

• Nursery - Thursday

• Reception -  Wednesday

• Year 1 - Monday

• Year 2 - Tuesday

• Year 3 - Monday

• Year 4 - Wednesday

• Year 5 - Thursday

• Year 6 - Tuesday

Donations to Barnardo's

Last year our year 6 children , who are now in Brynteg, took part in a project to recycle clothing. You may recall we asked parents for donations of unwanted clothing to pass onto families in need.  The children took time to wash and dry the clothes (their suggestion!) and packaged the clothes in bundles according to boy / girl and children's ages.  This week we were able to donate all these bundles of clothes to Barnardo's.  The charity has told us that their is a high level of demand for these clothes and they were delighted to receive them.  Henry, Bella, Sofia and Ella from our current year 6 were thrilled to pass over the clothing bundles.

This week in Nursery 

We are delighted at how well the children are settling into school.  This week they have been exploring the Nursery setting and our outdoor environment. 

Enrichment

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.