Our Lady of Good Aid Cathedral Primary School

Cathedral’s first value is Love and we often think about ways our school community can help those less fortunate than ourselves. Cathedral’s Ignite Junior Chaplaincy Team coordinated a reverse Advent Calendar during the month of December which invited one pupil each day to bring in a donation for local food bank, Deepsea Day. As is so often the case, the generosity of Cathedral families exceeded all expectations and the charity was absolutely delighted to collect the bags of food on Thursday 19th December which will go directly to support people in our local community.

After all the hard work of our Primary 3 – 7 Christmas concert and Primary 1 and 2 Nativity, Cathedral learners had the opportunity to BE the audience on Wednesday 18th December when M & M Productions performed ‘Robin Hood’. The familiar story was retold with the usual pantomime drama, costumes, songs and humour (oh, yes, it was!) and the festive production was a well-earned treat for pupils (including our nursery children) and staff alike.

A huge thank you to Mr Hamill and Miss Cameron for making a guest appearance during the performance!

We reported on Monday 16th December that, due to a number of bugs going around, Cathedral’s overall pupil attendance had dropped by a worrying 2% to 92.6%. However, Mr Young did an attendance check on Wednesday 18th December and was absolutely delighted to see that the school’s overall attendance rate for that day was 95%. It would be fantastic to have an equally healthy attendance rate on the last day of term (Friday 20th) when we’ll enjoy our traditional Movie Duvet Day.

A HUGE thank you to parents and carers for your support in helping us maintain high pupil attendance here at Cathedral.

Our nursery learners donned festive outfits on Monday 16th December for an energetic Santa dash to raise money for St Andrew’s Hospice. A representative from the hospice was delighted to visit Cathedral nursery on Wednesday 18th December to receive a cheque for £200. Well done to our incredible nursery athletes!

Cathedral pupils partied the morning away on Wednesday 18th December at their year group Christmas parties. The children looked absolutely fantastic in their outfits and thoroughly enjoyed the games, dancing and party food. Santa Claus even made a special visit to our Primary 1 children and Mr Young was delighted to hear every Cathedral pupil is on the nice list!

There ain’t no party like an OLGA party!

As part of our Campus Connections programme, Cathedral and Firpark learners have worked together with ‘Projectability’ over the past few months on a joint art project. The beautiful mural was unveiled on Monday 16th December and will now take pride of place in our shared dining hall.

Cathedral gym hall was packed out on Tuesday 17th December for both performances of this year’s infant nativity, ‘Wriggly Nativity’. The audience was whisked back 2000 years to the Holy Land, where the first Christmas was retold through a humorous storyline and an array of fun, toe-tapping songs.

Well done to our Primary 1 and 2 learners (you were FABULOUS!) and many thanks to teaching and support staff for all your hard work getting things ready for the big day. Particular thanks to Mrs McCoy, director and choreographer extraordinaire, as well as ‘Uncle Joe’, our lighting and sound engineer. What a team!

This Primary 6 learner was exceptionally proud on Monday 15th December when he heard that he had come second place out of literally hundreds of entries in the annual Knights of St Columba Christmas art competition. His beautiful image of the Holy Family in the stable clearly caught the eyes of the judges!

There have been lots of bugs going around in recent weeks and this has had a negative impact on pupil attendance. As of Monday 16th December, Cathedral’s overall pupil attendance is:

92.6% 

This is a worrying drop of 2.11% since the end of October and takes us below Cathedral’s attendance target for this session.

Although we know the reason for this drop, it is vital we get our attendance back up above 95% and sustain this until June 2025. Please can I ask all parents and carers to ensure their child is in school throughout this last week of term. Learning continues and, of course, we have parties, the pantomime and Movie Duvet Day to look forward to. EVERY SCHOOL DAY COUNTS!

A helpful leaflet about attendance percentages can be accessed via the link below:

Attendance table

This Primary 7 learner received a prestigious trophy on Saturday 14th December when he was awarded Motherwell Phoenix FC Manager’s Player of the Year 2024. The award is in recognition of his incredible hard and dedication throughout the year. Many congratulations from everyone here at Cathedral!