Our Lady of Good Aid Cathedral Primary School

Following the Primary 1 Welcome Mass on Thursdays 25th, our young learners were presented with their 150th anniversary commemorate medals.  What a wonderful year to join the Cathedral family!

Our new Primary 1 pupils were formally welcomed to Cathedral Primary School at a special Mass in the cathedral on Thursday 25th September. Following the opening hymn, ‘Jesus loves me, this I know’, and the scripture readings, Fr Lamb said a prayer of blessing over the children, asking God to be with them throughout their journey through Cathedral Primary. He also blessed the special 150th anniversary medals which each child received once back in school.

During the Mass, Cathedral teachers renewed their commitment to their vocation as Catholic educators in the presence of the school and parish community.

Pupils raised the roof with the closing hymn, ‘If I were a butterfly’, specially picked for our Primary 1 learners.

For you gave me a heart

and you gave me a smile;

you gave me Jesus

and you made me your child.

But I just thank you, Father,

for making me ME!

Primary 6 buddy applicants were put through their paces during a round of interviews with Mrs Duffy on Wednesday 24th September.

Many congratulations to those Primary 6 pupils who were successful at interview. Our enthusiastic and committed learners responded to Mrs Duffy’s job advert, completed an application form and went through the interview process.  We look forward to seeing their leadership skills in action as they work with Cathedral’s youngest learners in the months ahead.

The first of our Investigation & Innovation Hub family learning sessions took place on Tuesday 23rd September. Each session began with a presentation from Mr Young on how activities within the hub fit naturally into Cathedral’s overall Active8 approach. Mr Young went on to explain the importance of Cathedral Primary helping learners develop skills for life and work in the 21st Century, including creativity, collaboration, adaptability and persistence/grit.

Following the presentation, parents and carers worked alongside their child to get a feel for the types of exciting, open-ended projects which take place in the hub.

You can read more about Cathedral’s Investigation & Innovation Hub my clicking on the link below:

https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/nl/olga/investigation-innovation-hub/

Mr Young was very impressed to encounter this Primary 3 learner and his mum out for an evening jog when he was heading for the train on Monday 22nd September. Mr Young felt a wee bit shown up by the athletic pair but quickly checked his own Fitbit and found out he’d walked over 13,000 steps (5.7 miles) so far that day… not too bad! Nevertheless, well done to Cathedral’s running duo: keep up the impressive fitness regime!

The Depute Head and a class teacher from St Columba’s Primary School, Oban, made an incredible 200 mile round trip on Monday 22nd September to see and experience Cathedral’s Active8 approach for themselves. Mrs Campbell and Miss MacGregor were joined by Mrs Neillie, Depute Head Teacher of Glendale Primary School, Glasgow, and Mrs Lettis who is supporting the development of play and enquiry in North Lanarkshire.

After getting an overview of Active8 from Mr Young, our visitors spent the morning in Winners Wynd, seeing for themselves how Cathedral’s Active8 approach works in practice. All four visitors were extremely impressed with the engagement, enthusiasm and independence of Cathedral learners and are looking forward to taking what they saw, heard and learned back to their own schools.

You can read more about Cathedral’s Active8 approach by clicking on the link below:

https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/nl/olga/active8/

After working collaboratively for a number of days in Cathedral’s Investigation & Innovation Hub, Primary 3a learners tested out their Viking longships on Friday 19th September. Almost all groups’ longships, which were laden with Vikings, supplies and pillage, successfully floated, with only a few requiring some minor modifications. Great teamwork, Primary 3a!

You can read more about Cathedral’s Investigation & Innovation Hub by clicking on the link below:

Investigation & Innovation Hub |

These Primary 6b learners popped down to Mr Young’s office on Friday 19th September to show off their incredible creation. One of their class’s ‘Explore and Extend’ activities was left open-ended, inviting learners to access the ‘continuous provision’ in their learning street and make a model of their choice. Inspired by their recent class novel, ‘The Borrowers’, the girls carefully read the description of the Borrower’s house before gathering various materials to design and construct their impressive 3D model, complete with table, chairs and miniature food. What creative learner-led learning!

An audience of family and friends were transported to sunny Brazil during Primary 5’s Learning Showcase on Friday 19th September. The performance was jam-packed with fascinating information about the South American country and included signing, dancing and (as always) lots of humour throughout. There were chuckles around the audience when one pupil took to the front of the stage to play the famous statue of Christ the Redeemer! The audience left with their feet tapping when the showcase concluded with vibrant music and dance from the Rio carnival.

Well done to Primary 5 on such a fantastic Learning Showcase and many thanks to Mrs Irwin, Mrs Devanney and Mrs Loose for all their hard work preparing our young learners for their big day.

Forest adventures continued for Cathedral’s nursery learners on Thursday 18th September. The children used a new tool to safely whittle their marshmallows sticks. They also had fun comparing stick sizes and were able to place them in order of size.

The tight-rope was a popular activity and helped the children improve their balancing and co-ordination skills. Before lunch, our young explorers embarked on a nature walk, looking for different shapes and colours of autumn leaves which they gathered to take back to the nursery to use in the art area.

Lunch was a little different this week as the children gathered at the fire area to learn about how to stay safe while using the fire to toast our sandwiches. The cheese toasties got mixed reviews but the marshmallows scored high on Trust Pilot!

Our young learners have now mastered the two verses of the forest song and are showing signs of improvement in sharing and taking turns. Next week sees the final week for this cohort and parents/carers will be invited to join the children in the forest to see first-hand the skills and knowledge the children have gained.