Our Lady of Good Aid Cathedral Primary School

To round off their knights and castles topic, Primary 2 learners donned their crowns on Friday 15th November and travelled to the Great Hall for a glamourous medieval ball. The classes in Brainbox Boulevard gathered to wave to the princes and princesses on their way past. Our young royals enjoyed dancing and party games before sitting down to a banquet and then having their photos taken next to the golden carriage. What a grand end to a fantastic topic!

These two tech-savvy Primary 3 learners popped along to Mr Young’s office on Thursday 14th November to share some of their literacy work. The boys had programmed the Chatterpix app to make the mouth of the character on the front cover of their book move in time to a recording of them retelling the story in their own words. Impressive!

Our Play Zone was a hive of activity on Thursday 14th November for the second day of Family Learning, this time for our Primary 2 classes. Once again, Mr Young began each individual class’s session with a presentation on Cathedral’s approach to play and then parents and carers had the opportunity to visit the Play Zone and learn alongside their child.

Feedback from Primary 1 and 2 parents and carers over the two days was exceptionally positive:

“An excellent way for children to develop skills and lead their learning.”

“It was great to watch Lucas design his teapot and describe to me what he was learning.”

“It was lovely to see the children interacting together in such a controlled but fun way.”

“Harper loves coming out to the play area. She has really enjoyed showing me her writing today.”

“I loved seeing how engaged they all were.”

Forty nine Cathedral pupils participated in the North Lanarkshire Active Schools cross country trials at Shotts playing fields on Tuesday 12th November, with many of our young athletes qualifying for the finals. A special mention goes to two Primary 5 pupils who both won second place in a race involving well over 100 runners.

Congratulations to all pupils who took part and many thanks to Mrs Tominey and Mr Hamill for coaching our cross country team.

Go Come Clubbing @ Cathedral!

Schools across Scotland will mark Catholic Education Week during a two-week window, beginning on 16th November (the feast of St Margaret of Scotland) and ending on 30th November (St Andrew’s Day).

This coming weekend, Cathedral and St Luke’s parish will mark Education Sunday, with Cathedral Primary pupils directly involved in the 4.30pm vigil Mass in St Luke’s (Saturday 15th) and the 10.30am Sunday Mass in the cathedral. All families are warmly invited to attend one of these Masses and pupils are encouraged to wear their school uniform.

The four schools in Our Lady’s High School cluster have put together a joint newsletter to mark Catholic Education Week. This can be accessed via the link below:

https://sway.cloud.microsoft/2XK5G0isKPTwwL5G?ref=email

Please also click on the link below to read a pastoral letter from Archbishop William Nolan, Bishop President for Education:

Pastoral_Letter_CEW_24 final

Primary 1 parents and carers had the opportunity to attend a play Family Learning event on Tuesday 12th November. Each individual class’s Family Learning session started with a presentation from Mr Young outlining the importance of play and how it is organised in Cathedral Primary School to facilitate adult-led, adult-initiated and child-led learning. Parents and carers then had the opportunity to visit the Play Zone to learn alongside their child.

Similar Family Learning sessions will take place on Thursday 14th November for Primary 2 parents and carers.

We are currently developing our January – June Parental Engagement & Family Learning programme. Watch this space!

‘Bookworm of the Week’ certificates were reintroduced to our weekly assemblies on Monday 11th November. Directly linked to ‘Accelerated Reader’, which is used to organise Cathedral’s school library, certificates are awarded to those Primary 4 – 7 learners who read the most words each week, based on books completed (including completing end-of-book comprehension quizzes).

We know how much Cathedral pupils love a bit of healthy competition and have no doubt that the reintroduction of ‘Bookworm of the Week’ certificates will further motivate learners to get into our fantastic library and read for enjoyment on a daily basis.

This Primary 5 learner recently participated in the North Lanarkshire schools swimming time trials at the Tryst Sports Centre, Cumbernauld, competing in the girls’ 12 and under 50 metre breaststroke and freestyle.

Many congratulations on your remarkable achievement. Definitely one to record on your Rose Trainer Achievement Award card!

There was an absolutely fantastic atmosphere at our Family Fun Night on Friday 8th November. As always, there was something to appeal to all ages and the queues for the sparkly tattoos and the tombola were equally long. The children’s entertainer held everyone’s attention in the gym hall throughout the evening, with some great dance moves from both the children and the grown-ups.

By the end of the night, an incredible £1,576.29 had been raised!

A massive thank you to our dedicated Fundraising Committee for organising and running the event and to pupils and families for turning out in such great numbers.

MNU 0-02A I have explored numbers, understanding that they represent quantities, and I can use them to count.

RME 0-06a I am becoming aware of the importance of celebrations, festivals and customs in religious peoples lives.

Wellbeing Indicators: Safe & Achieving

Our young learners have been exploring numbers in a variety of ways this week. We have looked at coins and began to identify each coin and learn that they have their own value. Staff and children have visited the local community to further develop this learning and have risk assessed on the way, crossing roads and listening to their teachers and friends.

We have marked several festivals in the nursery in recent weeks, with Halloween on the 31st October, Diwali on the 1st November and Guy Fawkes on 5th November. The children particularly enjoyed wearing their Halloween costumes to nursery and playing some traditional games.

We continue to use ‘Living our Values’ stickers as part of our daily experiences, encouraging our young learners to show Love, Friendship, Effort and Growth within the nursery environment. Each child awarded a sticker is added to the “I’m proud of this” wall in our nursery cloakroom area.