Another busy week in Oldcastle has flown by!  We have been lucky with fine dry weather for the most part this week, which has allowed lots of outdoor learning, sports day practice and a couple of sports tournaments for our older children to take place. This term is very short, and next week is our last week in school before we break up.  Don't forget it is half term from Monday 26th May to Friday 30th May.  The school is also closed to pupils on Monday, 2nd June, as this is an inset day; children return to school on Tuesday, 3rd June.

Sports Day Years 1 to 6

We've had a lovely day today for our years 1 to 6 sports day.  The weather was perfect for the whole day.  This morning, children in years 1 to 3 took part in a variety of events in the morning session, and the children in years 4 to 6 came to the track for the afternoon.  At the end of the day, children in years 1 to 3 joined us on an online meeting whilst Mrs Littlewood announced the scores.

We would like to thank all the parents and carers who were able to join us and support the children during the events.   Your support means that the children have a fantastic experience.  Once again, we need to thank our PTA, who provided refreshments throughout the day - thank you if you donated cakes.  We owe a huge thank you to Mrs Evans for pulling together yet another successful sports day, and finally, thank you to our staff for all their hard work. Some of our staff were at the athletic track at 7.30am this morning, ensuring the set-up of the event. 

The results of the Sports Day are as follows:

1st Place - BLUE HOUSE - 720 points

2nd Place - GREEN HOUSE - 705 points

3rd Place - YELLOW HOUSE - 690 points

4th Place - RED HOUSE - 685 points

Well done to our blue house captains - Bella and Osian proudly showing the Sports Day trophy!

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. The PTA will be providing refreshments at the event.

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.

Football Tournament 

Well done to some of our football players who represented the school in the Apollo Football Tournament on Wednesday.  The team played 7 games in their group winning 4, losing 1 and drawing 2 meaning that they came second in their group.  Well done to all the players who did Oldcastle proud.  

Rugby Tournament 

Huge congratulations to our rugby team who have won the South Wales Police Touch Rugby competition on Thursday! Well done to all the boys. Thank you to Mrs Evans and Mr Durston for ensuring the boys success today. 

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 94.8%.

PTA disco

Thank you to our PTA for arranging the school disco last Friday.  The event was a success with lots of children enjoying the occassion.  The PTA made a profit of over £380 from the event. Thank you to all the parents who took time to help out.

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 

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 to Bobbie from year 4 who achieved her Advanced Swimmer Bronze award recently.  

• 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

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.