We've had a busy week in Oldcastle that has flown by as it was a four-day, week!  We hope you enjoyed the bank holiday weekend.  May is due to fly by as we have a really short term and lots of things planned!  Next Friday is Sports Day for years 1 to 6, and the following Friday will be the sports event for nursery and reception/.  Please read on for more details.

Today our PTA have arranged a disco for pupils and we are delighted that over 220 children enjoyed. The discos are great fun for the children and also a fantastic fundraiser for the PTA.  The PTA are very supportive of our school, and these events help raise much needed funds.  Thank you to the PTA for organising and running such a great event for our children.

VE Day - Celebrations at Oldcastle Primary School

We had an amazing day on Thursday, celebrating the 80th anniversary of VE Day.  We started the day with a whole school gathering around our flag pole to raise a special VE Day flag.  Children then all met on the yard and created some amazing flags to commemorate the day.  Thank you to our PTA for arranging for Brett Exton from Hut 9 Preservation Society to come along and talk to our children. They also arranged for 'Fiery Jack's' circus skills workshop to attend, and children learnt some fantastic new skills.   At the end of the day we all came together to listen to each year group perform their chosen song to commemorate the day.

Thank you to our amazing catering team for providing the packed lunches for our street party.  

You can hear the beautiful singing and look at photos from the day on our website - please click here.  VE Day songs and photos.

Family Thrive Sessions

We are delighted to offer parents and carers the opportunity to attend the Family Thrive for Parents and Carers Course. This course will consist of six sessions and will introduce you to the key principles of the Thrive Approach in an accessible way so that you are better able to understand and support the work that is being done in Oldcastle. It covers topics such as: how your brain develops, how to support your child in times of difficulty, and how to be a behaviour detective. 

The first part of the session will involve learning about the elements of the Thrive Approach and, in the second part, your child will join you for some fun activities. It will start on Monday 12th May between 1.30pm and 3.00pm and end on the 23rd June. This will include a one-week break for the May half-term holiday. If you would like to attend, please fill in the form below to express your interest. Numbers will be limited, but further courses will be run to meet demand. Please feel free to contact Mrs Diehl if you have any questions.

Please complete the form below if you are interested in attending.

Family Thrive Sessions

Schools Cross Country  Presentation - Years 3 to 6 - Change of Date

The Schools Cross Country presentation / fund day will take place ion Saturday 17th 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.

Community Food Pantry

Our Food Pantry has had a makeover this week with the addition of new purpose built shelving thanks to grant funding received from BAVO.  We are grateful to receive funding from BAVO for the food pantry and we are delighted with the new shelving.  We have ongoing funding for the pantry and along with donations of food from Baobab Bach.  The pantry is stocked weekly, mainly on a Monday morning, and this is available for all parents and carers to make use of.  The pantry works on the basis of 15 items for £5.

Rugby Tournament 

Well done to some of our rugby players who represented the school in a rugby tournament this week. We are delighted to hear that won the tournament and came away with a fantastic trophy which is no proudly displayed in main reception.  Well done everyone you did your school proud. Thank you to Mrs Evans and Mr Durston for your support with the rugby team this school year.

Online Safety Parent Workshop - Tuesday 10th June at 4pm

We are excited to invite you to our upcoming ‘Online Safety Learning Event’. The event aims to encourage thinking about child development and their everyday 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 Mathew Jones, Digital Lead Officer for BCBC and will be held in school.

Date: Tuesday 10th June 2025. 

Time: 4pm-5pm

The parent/carer online safety learning session will cover:

• Mobile apps: categories of apps and age-restriction.

• Child-development and maturity: are children ready for social media and over-aged apps? 

• Monitoring apps: mobile apps to be aware of, emerging technology, restriction and configuration of devices.

• WhatsApp: what parents and carers need to know, risks and advice

• School Health Research Network (SHRN): Digital and social media concerns for primary-aged pupils (sharing of data)

• Bridgend context: research studies highlighting outcomes for children and young people in Bridgend

• Reporting and Removal: tools to share with children

• How families can support children: Family Agreement 

The intended outcomes of the session include: 

• The types of mobile apps children are using;

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

• Mobile app age-restriction settings;

• Encouraging thinking – are children ready for social media and over-aged apps;

• Encouraging thinking around the use of WhatsApp;

• The concerns for Bridgend children who are engaged in in-appropriate

• online behaviour; 

• How to report and remove harmful content.

• Family agreement to build trust and promote online good habits

If you are interested in attending this session, register by completing the Google Form  - Online Safety Registration Form

Barclays Community Champion

Luke from Barclays Bank is a local community champion and visits Oldcastle most Wednesday afternoons to offer advice on a variety of areas.  You don't have to be a customer of Barclays Bank to benefit.  Luke is there to offer help and support on digital and money matters and will be based in the Community Room from 1.30pm. Please do pop in and have a chat and a cuppa.

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 94.6%.

Forthcoming PTA events

• 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.   

If you are able to help walk the children to Newbridge Fields either for the monring or afternoon events please let your child's class teacher know or email us on ask@oldcastleprimary.co.uk

Children will need to wear PE Kit and bring weather appropriate clothes with them.  Please apply suncream if applicable and send children into school with a hat.  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.  If you have ordered a free packed lunch through school this will be provided to your child on the morning of the event. Children in years 1 to 3 will return to school for lunch as normal.

The PTA will be providing refreshments at the sports dayevent and we are asking parents / carers for cake donations to sell on the day. If you are able to donate cakes please bring them to Newbridge Fields on the day of the event. Thank you.

Please note dogs should not be brought to the event.  

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.

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.  

Well done Martha from year 2 on your achievement with Stagecoach!

Well done to Hannah and Betsi from year 4 for their success in the Bridgend and District School Football Association. Both girls have been recognised for their achievements and Hannah has been voted as 'Player of the Year'. Great news well done both.

Road Safety Wales Advice on E Scooters

In the last few years Road Safety Wales has been highlighting the law surrounding e-bikes and e-scooters and this has included circulating information to primary and secondary schools across Wales.

Some people may have innocently purchased an e-bike or e-scooter, unaware that they could be breaking the law when riding it. Road Safety Wales is asking schools, colleges and organisations working with young people to share some information so that collisions and injuries can ultimately be avoided.

The Road Safety Wales partnership has developed a bilingual information sheet, here and short educational films, which were forwarded to schools and are available on the Road Safety Wales YouTube channel in Welsh and English.

We would like to see as many people as possible travelling actively, particularly as the health benefits far outweigh travelling in a vehicle, but we want everyone to ensure that they are staying safe and legal.

The information sheet includes the main points regarding legislation and details from the National Fire Chief’s Council on key fire prevention messages relating to storage and charging; safety advice that is vital to schools when considering if e-bikes should be permitted on school premises.

Road Safety Wales would encourage all schools to ensure that any illegal e-bikes and all illegal e-scooters are prohibited within schools in the interest of safety and to avoid potential liability following an incident.      

• 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

This week in Nursery

What a busy week we’ve had in the Nursery this week!  We’ve been talking about our favourite toys and drawn pictures of them in our books and what a super job we’ve done. We have also been sorting toys according to their size and ordered them from smallest to largest. We all had a fabulous day on Thursday, celebrating and remembering VE Day.  

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.