Our Lady of Good Aid Cathedral Primary School

‘Smart School Council’ gives every Cathedral pupil a voice and, under the leadership of our twelve House Captains, helps drive forward change and improvement in Cathedral Primary. Our current priorities are focused on Reading for Enjoyment and House events for the year ahead.

As well as every Cathedral pupil participating in a fortnightly class meeting, the children are kept up-to-date on developments at our weekly assemblies and via the Smart School Council Action Board (see above), which is located in the main corridor.

We look forward to sharing improvements brought about by our Smart School Council with parents and carers throughout the course of the year.

On Thursday 27th October, our Primary 6 pupils had the opportunity to visit The Travelling Gallery, a contemporary art gallery in a bus which set up for the day in the school playground.  This year’s exhibition was entitled “Re-connect”, very apt as the country moves out of COVID restrictions.

All of the children thoroughly enjoyed their visit to the gallery and were inspired by the artwork.

‘I really enjoyed learning about all the artists and all of their different art styles.’   (Freya)

‘I really enjoyed it. The artists worked really hard and their art was outstanding.’ (Charlotte)

‘It was very cool and I was surprised how big it was inside!’ (Jakub)

‘I like the fact that you could look through the artists’ sketchbooks.’ (Monica)

Our Halloween discos, which took place on the evening of Tuesday 25th October, were a freakishly huge success. The children’s costumes were fantastic and every boy and girl from Primary 1 all the way up to Primary 7 had an absolutely great time on the dance floor. The above photograph of four Primary 7 pupils who coordinated their costumes to form the Ghostbusters team caught Mr Young’s eye straight away!

Many thanks to the fundraising committee for organising and coordinating the discos, to the amazing DJ and to all those teachers who gave of their time to come along and join in the fun.

To mark Black History month, Primary 7a worked with ‘Scoutable’ throughout the afternoon of Thursday 13th October. Scoutable United was founded to showcase the best young, multi-ethnic, Scottish footballers who are overlooked by the scouting system. In their first year alone, Scoutable placed 7 young pros at Scottish clubs.

During the afternoon, Yusuf, Ash and Ade spoke about the importance of the project and the positive impact it has on local communities. The boys were so impressed with the children’s behaviour and commented on how engaged the children were, asking lots of interesting and positive questions. After the presentation, the children participated in a football training session with Ade (former Rangers Youth Academy player and Football agent), followed by a football game.

Many thanks to Scoutable for their inspiring input and for presenting two football shirts: one to Isaac who won the quiz and the other to Yo-yo who won a football game.

Some intrepid book explorers visited Scotia Books in Kilsyth on Thursday 13^th October with an important literary mission.  Three of our House Captains were sent off by Mr Young with a budget of £2000 to choose additional books to supplement our school library.  Spending £2000 was great fun and with the help of Anna and Linzi at Scotia, the new books, primarily for our middle school, will be winging their way to us after the holidays.

On Tuesday 11th October, our whole school community joined parents and parishioners in Our Lady of Good Aid Cathedral for a special Mass to formally welcome our new Primary 1 pupils and also bid a sad farewell to Fr Chromy and Fr Mark who both move to new parishes later this month. This was the first time since before the pandemic that the entire school had been able to gather together in the Cathedral, making it all the more special. The children participated in the Mass attentively and prayerfully and lifted the roof with their enthusiastic singing of the opening and closing hymns.

Towards the end of Mass, Fr Chromy prayed a special blessing over our new Primary 1 pupils, after which Fr Chromy and Fr Mark were presented with gifts of restaurant vouchers from pupils and staff and theatre vouchers from parents and carers.

In an email to Mr Young, one Cathedral parent wrote:

“It was a beautiful mass and the children of Cathedral Primary were out of this world. The singing, participation and behaviour of all pupils was outstanding and it was a joy to attend…. Cathedral Primary is a fantastic community to be a part of.”

Mr Young couldn’t agree more!

Primary 7 took to the stage on Friday 7th October for their Learning Showcase. The hall was packed with the children’s families who all thoroughly enjoyed the vibrant and humourous performance all about Growth Mindset. The children did themselves and their teachers proud and demonstrated just what a fantastic Primary 7 year group they are.

At the end of the assembly, Mr Young expressed how good it was to see the return of school events after two years of COVID. We look forward to more Learning Showcases throughout the coming year, as well as next term’s P1 & 2 Nativity and P3-7 Christmas Concert.

This year’s ‘Come Clubbing @ Cathedral’ programme, which offers pupils a wide range of extra curricular activities, is now well underway. Our Cooking Club has, once again, been very popular, giving budding chefs the opportunity to try out new recipes and develop their culinary skills.

Every Cathedral teacher runs a club at some point during the course of the year: their commitment to the children’s wider learning and willingness to go the extra mile is very, very much appreciated.

Following the launch of our Ca-Fi Connections initiative in August, almost all Cathedral and Firpark pupils have now had the opportunity to visit each other’s schools. On Thursday 6th October, the ‘Ca-Fi Council’ enjoyed a tour of Cathedral Primary together, along with Mrs McGuire (Principal Teacher, Firpark) and Miss Cawley (Principal Teacher, Cathedral).

The Ca-Fi Council has responsibility for leading and coordinating joint events and learning opportunities across the two schools.