Our Lady of Good Aid Cathedral Primary School

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

Primary 5b learners set up a mini enterprise during the last week of term, selling beautiful hand-crafted finger rosaries. Not only did their enterprise promote prayer during this season of Lent, it also raised money for Missio, which will be added to our Friday Lenten almsgiving.

The big storm back in January not only brought down branches around the school grounds (as well as an entire tree next to our pitch, which damaged the fence) but also blew in a huge amount of litter. With the clocks changing and spring having well and truly arrived, Cathedral learners teamed-up during the week beginning 31st March for Project Ground Force . Armed with gloves, litter-pickers and rakes, our incredible army of workers gave Cathedral’s grounds a major spring clean. Thank you to each and every one of you! WHAT A TEAM!

For our Muslim families, Ramadan, the holy month of prayer and fasting, is now over and today, 30th March, loved ones come together to celebrate Eid ul-Fitr. From everyone here at Cathedral, may this Eid be filled with peace, happiness and many blessings!

A newly-formed choir, comprising pupils from six of the schools involved in the National Schools Singing Programme, made its debut at the vigil Mass in Motherwell Cathedral on Saturday 29th March. The children sang alongside the established adult choir and, together, beautifully led the congregation in the music of the liturgy. Moving forward, the choir will sing at the Cathedral’s vigil Mass once a month.

Friday afternoon is often an opportunity for truly learner-led learning here at Cathedral, when pupils can explore the ‘continuous provision’ available in the various areas of their learning street. These Primary 7 learners headed to the ‘Creation Station’ on Friday 28th March and created this beautiful 3D Easter scene. They even ventured outside to gather real grass to make the scene more realistic. Well done on your creative collaboration!

Primary 6 took to the stage on Friday 28th March to showcase their recent learning on Australia. The vibrant, informative and humorous performance included Captain James Cook’s expedition to Australia in 1770, Australian wildlife and the country’s famous landmarks. One of the highlights was Cathedral’s very own ‘I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!’, when Mr Young and Mrs Duffy joined Australian celebrities to eat worms, eye-balls and drink fish guts! The showcase ended with an energetic performance of ‘Do the Locomotion’.

This showcase was particularly poignant as one of our Cathedral families, the Darrochs, emigrate to Australia on 8th April. Findlay and Isla will be sorely missed, but we wish them well in their new life down under!

Well done to Primary 6 for pulling off such a fantastic learning showcase, and many thanks to Mrs Callaghan, Mrs McMillan and Mr Hamill for all their hard work preparing the children for their special performance.

Lenten almsgiving on Friday 28th March was particularly close to Cathedral’s heart as Mrs McCarthy continues to receive treatment for a brain tumour. Learners and staff wore their ‘hats of hope’ throughout the day to help find a cure for all types of brain tumours and Mrs McCarthy popped in to show her appreciation. A total of £470.13 was raised on the day for Brain Tumour Research. Mrs McCarthy’s family have very kindly topped this up to an incredible £1000!

Thursday 27th March was the final session of Block 1 of Forest Schools and our nursery learners had the opportunity to showcase the new skills they’ve learned over the past few weeks to their parents and carers. The children worked as a team to get to the forest site safely and then demonstrated how quickly and independently they could set up base camp.

The session’s main activity, which the children did alongside their own special visitor, was to create a piece of forest artwork. The children chose a variety of  branches to create a frame and then used natural materials to make their pictures.

The children showed their visitors how to safely take part in making a fire and toast marshmallows before finishing off their final session with fun on the rope-swing.

Many congratulations to our woodland adventurers!