Class and Team Photos

The links to the class photos have been sent to parents via email.  The photos should be ordered by 30th June 2025 if you want them to be delivered to school.  Orders placed after this will incur a postage cost.

Team Photos will be sent to parents next week.

Careers Week

Careers Week has been very busy with lots of exciting career options discussed.  There's too many photos to add into the weekly newsletter so please take a look at the dedicated Careers Week site! Thank you to everyone that visited. 

Please click this link to view the webpage on    Careers Week 2025

Bump Up Day - Thursday 26th June

Bump Up Day is when we announce who your child's teacher will be for the next academic year.  Children will congregate in the main hall for a morning assembly, and we will announce the class teacher for each class.  Children will then be able to visit their new classroom and get to know their new class teacher.  

Year 6 pupils will visit their new secondary school on this day. Year 6 parents, please follow the instructions sent by Brynteg which will tell you where your child needs to go on Thursday.  

Once our assembly has finished, parents will be emailed with details of the new class teachers and the location of their child's new classroom.  We always enjoy Bump Up Day and know that children get excited to find out who their teacher will be from September 2025.

To help with the transition here's a short slideshow on what to expect. Transition Information

Oldcastle Rocks

Oldcastle Rocks is fast approaching and we are excited to let you know what will be happening on the day.  To start the day our school choir will perform and welcome you to Oldcastle Rocks.  We then have a jam packed itinerary for the performance stage .  We also have Fiery Jacks Entertainment, children's non stop disco, lots of fun stalls, bbq, children's activities, fitness sessions, bar, bbq, cakes , Sunday Afternoon Theatre Group and so much more.  Venetia Steele Boutique will be at the event and will have a range of items available to purchase.

We do hope you can join us. Entry is free and children's activity bands are available for £4. We will have raffle tickets on sale at the entrance too.  The gates open at 1.30pm with the stage entertainment starting at 2pm.  The event will finish at 6pm. We will accept cash and card.

The tombola is always a popular stall and we are on the look out for bottle donations - if you are able to donate please drop into main reception.  

Volunteers Needed - we need your help!  Oldcastle Rocks will only be a success with the help of volunteers.  If you can help with setting up, help out on the many stalls or helping with clear up, please let us know via this Google Form.   

Oldcastle Rocks Volunteer Form

Preloved School Uniform

At this time of year your child might start growing out of their uniform. why not pop along to the main reception and take a look at our preloved uniform rails.  All items  are free and we are grateful when parents take items off our hands!

Community Food Pantry

Our Food Pantry is restocked weekly and we encourage everyone to call in and take a look at the fantastic food we have available. We are extremely grateful to receive ongoing funding for the pantry 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.

Digital and Banking Advice

Luke from Barclays Bank will be based in the community room on Wednesday, 25th June from 1.30pm to answer any questions you may have about banking or digital skills. Luke is keen to help our school community and has some really top tips so please do pop in. You can also help yourself to a free cuppa!

Online Safety Parent Workshop - Tuesday 24th June at 4pm PLEASE NOTE THIS DATE HAS BEEN CHANGED 

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 24th 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

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 94.7%.

Tesco Community Blue Token Scheme

We are delighted to have been accepted to be included in the Tesco Community Blue Token Scheme from July to September this year.  Please vote for Oldcastle when you see our project displayed!

Oldcastle Primary School, Community Pantry, Bridgend

Our food pantry ensures that our pupils and their families have access to nutritious food and essential supplies, all-year round.

The project with the highest number of votes across your region will receive £1,500, the second placed project £1,000 and the third placed project £500. 

Please see below a list of stores taking part in the voting on your project. Feel free to share this list of stores amongst your supporters and within your community.

• Bridgend 1 Superstore CF31 4AP

• Bridgend Extra CF31 3SQ

• Gentle Way Bridgnd Express Express CF31 5EJ

• North Cornelly Express Express CF33 4LN

• Pencoed Express Express CF35 5NG

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.  

We love to hear about pupil success outside of school.  Please email us any achievements to ask@oldcastleprimary.co.uk

Squash Success

Mrs Littlewood was delighted to congratulate Heidi from year 6 following her Welsh cap success.  Heidi recently represented Squash Wales in the Five Nations Squash Championship in France.  Well done Heidi, we are sure this will be one of many Welsh caps! 

Swimming Success

Huge congratulations to our pupils who represented Oldcastle Primary in the Bridgend Schools Swimming Gala today. We were so impressed with the swimming performances. Delighted to come away as winners. Another trophy to add to our school trophy cabinet! The children brought their medals into school on Friday to show our whole school assembly.  #teamoldcastle 

Athletics Success

Aaron from year 6 competed in the Welsh Athletics track and field junior championships in Swansea last weekend. He ran in the 100m and 200m races and achieved a silver medal in the Under 13 boys long jump, jumping 4.51m!  Fantastic news.

Please take a look at our Careers Week website link from above to see photos from this week.

This week in the Nursery we have thoroughly enjoyed Careers Week.  We have had visits from Catrin the farmer and her sheep dog Harley, the British Transport Police, Shepherd’s the vets and watched a fabulous video from our past pupil Joe, who is now a musician in the Irish Guards.

We have talked about people in our community who help us and enjoyed dressing up as firefighters, the police, doctors, nurses, beauticians and vets.

We have taken advantage of the lovely weather and played outside.

A new Activity Pack, packed with fun, creative, and bilingual games to celebrate the UEFA Women's EURO 2025 has been launched to support the Wales Women’s Team in the tournament. Download yours now and get excited for football fun! C’mon Cymru: https://mentrauiaith.sharepoint.com/.../EYtUj...

Pecyn Gweithgareddau Ewros Menywod 2025

Oldcastle Toddlers will not take place next Wednesday.  The last session of the school year will be held on Wednesday 2nd July and there will be an end of term party for our Toddlers.

• Thursday 26th June - Bump Up Day

• 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

Inset Days for 2025 / 2026

The inset days for 2025 / 26 have been approved by school governors and these are as follows:

• Monday 1st September 2025 

• Friday 21st November 2025

• Monday 5th January 2026

• Friday 13th March 2026

• Friday 22nd May 2026

• Monday 20th July 2026

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.