Our Lady of Good Aid Cathedral Primary School

Fr Lamb has celebrated Mass every Tuesday and Thursday morning throughout Lent and it’s been wonderful to see pupils, parents, staff and parishioners turn out in such large numbers. Faith is certainly alive and flourishing here at Cathedral!

Our final Lenten Mass takes place tomorrow, Friday 4th April, at 8.15am. Everyone is most welcome to join us as we give thanks for the many blessings of this term and continue on our journey towards Holy Week and Easter.

The latest artwork to appear in Cathedral GOMA (Gallery Of Magnificent Art) online exhibition comes from Primary 5/6.

Our Primary 5 and 6 learners’ eye-catching optical illusions feature a geometric background in felt pen, with a cut-out pencil sketch of a soft drinks can in the foreground. Our young artists drew carefully from observation, exploring where light and shade could be seen on the can.

Keep watching this space for more masterpieces from Cathedral’s talented artists.

Cathedral learners and staff made a prayerful journey around the school grounds on Tuesday 2nd April for our annual outdoor Stations of the Cross. Each station was led by a group of Primary 7 pupils and the 12th Station featured a large wooden cross on top of the hill. The children were extremely respectful throughout this special Lenten opportunity for our whole school community to pray and reflect together.

We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you. Because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world.

The latest artwork to appear in Cathedral GOMA (Gallery Of Magnificent Art) online exhibition comes from Primary 5b.

Our Primary 5 learners’ moving images of Good Friday were created using watercolours for the background and marker pen to draw the silhouette of the crucified Christ. What beautiful and inspiring images.

Keep watching this space for more masterpieces from Cathedral’s talented artists.

Cathedral’s 150th Anniversary Theatre was officially opened by Mr Charlie Miller from Forgewood Holdings on Tuesday 1st April. Following the ceremonial cutting of the ribbon, the ‘Gie it Laldie’ choir, accompanied by Mrs Campbell on guitar, performed three pieces, including the Welly Boot Song. Mr Miller then enjoyed a tour of the school and was absolutely blown away by Cathedral pupils’ behaviour, manners and enthusiasm for learning. Mr Young played a wee ‘April Fools’ on Primary 1a by introducing Mr Miller to the children as an inspector!

Many thanks to Forgewood Holdings for funding this fantastic new addition to Cathedral’s school grounds. We look forward to the stage coming to life with playtime and lunchtime performances now that the better weather has arrived.

Primary 4 parents and carers were the last cohort this term to join their child in class for a digital family learning workshop. Each of the two sessions on Tuesday 1st April opened with a presentation on how digital can support literacy and numeracy across the curriculum. Our Primary 4 learners then enjoyed using ‘Scratch’ on their tablets to do some coding with their parent/carer which involved creating moving characters. Very impressive computing skills!

Digital family learning sessions take place for our three Primary 1 classes on Tuesday 29th April (the second week of the summer term). Times are as follows:

Primary 1a: 9.15 – 10.00am

Primary 1b: 11.00 – 11.45am

Primary 1c: 1.30 – 2.15pm

There’s a bit of an ongoing issue in Cathedral’s school grounds with tree roots lifting the monoblocks. For health and safety reasons, we have – up until now – intermittently gathered loose blocks and stored them in the shed. However, following an ingenious idea dropped into the Smart School Council suggestion box, the monoblocks have now been placed in a designated corner of the playground to create an outdoor construction area. As you can see, it’s already attracted some eager builders and is being put to very good use. Fun outdoor learning at zero cost!

(Please note: Mr Young met with someone from the local authority on Friday 28th March and raised the issue of the loose monoblocks).

As part of their current Religious Education, exploring the events of Holy Week and Easter, Primary 3a have an ‘Explore & Extend’ activity on their Active8 task-board which sets the challenge of building Jerusalem at the time of Christ from Lego. These learners decided to collaborate on the task and were very proud to showcase their impressive construction to Mr Young on Monday 31st March. Not only was it a fun activity, it will also help our Primary 3 learners visualise the location of the different events of Holy Week and Easter.

Mr Young chuckled to himself when this young learner popped along to his office on Monday 31st March with a picture he’d drawn during free-play. It shows Mr Young at assembly, complete with red tie, saying “Get ready for the inspectors”. How encouraging to know that even our youngest learners are thinking ahead to Cathedral’s visit from His Majesty’s Inspectors of Education, whenever that might be!

Good attendance makes a HUGE difference to your child’s progress and attainment. Every school day really does count!

We set a goal in mid-March to get Cathedral’s pupil attendance back up above 94% by the end of term and we’re delighted to say we have already met this target. Analysis of attendance across the school on Monday 31st March showed that Cathedral’s overall pupil attendance is now sitting at:

94.9% 

WE DID IT! It’s now vital we maintain or increase this attendance rate between now and the summer holidays.

Many thanks to all parents and carers for your support in helping us maintain high pupil attendance across Cathedral school community. A helpful leaflet about attendance percentages can be accessed via the link below:

Attendance table