Our Lady of Good Aid Cathedral Primary School

Cathedral learners donned a touch of tartan on Friday 29th November to celebrate Scotland’s patron, Saint Andrew, and our country’s national day. There was the opportunity to taste some Scottish produce and the day concluded with a service in honour of Saint Andrew for pupils and families, led by Mr Young, Primary 4 and the choir.

PRAYER TO ST ANDREW

O Glorious St Andrew,

you were the first to recognise

and follow the Lamb of God.

With your friend St John you remained with Jesus

for that first day, for your entire life,

and now throughout eternity.

As you led your brother St Peter to Christ

and many others after him,

draw us also to him.

Help us to learn the lesson of the Cross

and to carry our daily crosses without complaint

so that they may carry us to Jesus.

Amen

Inspired by a range of stimuli, I can express and communicate my ideas, thoughts and feelings through drama. (EXA 0-13a)

I have explored numbers, understanding that they represent quantities, and I can use them to count. (MNU 0-02a)

Wellbeing Indicator: Achieving

UNCRC Article 19: You have the right to be protected from being hurt and mistreated, in body and in mind.

This week, our nursery learners have continued to develop their knowledge of characters and have revisited familiar stories with their friends. Each child has had the opportunity to retell a familiar story in their own words.

Playing outdoors during this week’s colder weather has got the children talking about the different things we do during the winter months and has inspired us to make our own hot chocolate and homemade soup.

Our young learners have been using their design and construction skills to create and build a variety of structures. The children have talked about safe ways to build with the wooden blocks and were able to explain why we should use just the right amount of blocks when building towers.

This week’s ‘focus children’ have been very proud to wear their red lanyard which reads: ‘Ask me what I have been learning about today’. Each child has demonstrated confidence when using their own words to talk about their recent activities, experiences and learning.

Here at Cathedral, pupils write independently for short bursts EVERY day of the week as this allows learners across the school to apply what they’ve been learning in phonics, spelling and taught writing lessons. Mr Young was absolutely blown away when these Primary 1 learners visited his office on Thursday 28th November to share the sentences they had written independently. What an amazing achievement after only three months in Primary 1!

SUPER sentences, SUPER spelling, SUPER letter formation, SUPER punctuation and SUPER enthusiasm for your learning!

This Primary 4 learner was exceptionally proud to walk onto the pitch as one of Celtic’s mascots at the start of the UEFA Champions League match against Club Brugge on Wednesday 27th November. Despite the chilly weather, he had an absolutely fantastic night at Celtic Park, particularly when Daizen Maeda scored during the second half, resulting in a 1 – 1 draw and being enough to earn the Hoops a point. What an incredible achievement to record on your Rose Trainer Achievement Award card!

Whenever Mr Young needs some inspiration or a wee boost during the course of the school day, all he needs to do is walk through Cathedral’s four vibrant learning streets.  No matter where his walk takes him, he always finds Cathedral pupils accessing different learning spaces and fully engaged in their learning experiences, whether adult-led, adult-initiated or learner-led.

Mr Young and Mrs Duffy discovered this enthusiastic group of Primary 5 learners working together to create a 3D model of the solar system on Tuesday 26th November. Although they were using their art skills at the time, our young scientists were able to share some fascinating facts about the planets including that although Mars is known as the red planet, it is actually very cold and has polar ice caps.

Parents and carers can access our ‘Talking to your child about their learning’ leaflet by clicking on the link below. Why not take a few moments to find out what learning your child has been engaged in today?

Talking to your child about their learning

To further promote and encourage reading for enjoyment, a new display has been set up outside our school library to celebrate individual ‘Bookworms of the Week’ and also showcase the class who have collectively read the most words in a week (this includes completing their comprehension quizzes). Primary 5a is our most recent winning class, reading an incredible 57,883 words in just four school days! Well done, Primary 5a, and keep up your reading for enjoyment, Primary 4 – 7… you could be next week’s Reading Class of the Week!

Primary 7 have been learning about food nutrition as part of their work with the Celtic Foundation and were recently invited to make a meal at home from scratch. This Primary 7c learner embraced the challenge and cooked marinated lime chicken with broccoli and boiled potatoes. For dessert, he made a delicious blueberry cheescake and Mrs Allison was absolutely delighted to receive her very own mini portion on Tuesday 26th November. Congratulations on applying your knowledge and skills in real life!

As we approach the month of December, the latest ‘Spotlight this month’ has appeared in the library, focusing on books to curl up with this winter.

Cathedral learners continue to make great use of our library and twenty minutes of personal reading is incorporated into each day’s learning. Our use of ‘Accelerated Reader’ means pupils can complete a quiz when they finish a book and teachers can monitor the progress of every learner. ‘Accelerated Reader’ also allows us to award ‘Bookworm of the Week’ certificates at assembly and celebrate the Reading Class of the Week.

With Cathedral pupils being such avid readers, we know they’ll continue to commit to daily personal reading throughout the rest of this term as well as during the Christmas holidays. There are so many books to discover and enjoy in our fantastic library!

Another two teachers from St Mary’s Primary School, Bo’ness, spent Monday 25th November in Cathedral to see our Active8 approach in action. Once again, our visitors were exceptionally impressed by Cathedral learners’ behaviour, engagement, independence and the way they lead and take responsibility for their own learning. Something else which caught their attention, however, was the beautiful artwork displayed around the school.

Mr Young couldn’t agree more. Here’s some impressive artwork, created by Primary 4a, which recently stopped him in his tracks. The children’s pastel masterpieces beautifully capture the spectacle of the Northern Lights.

Catholic Education Week runs until Friday 29th November, when Cathedral school community will gather to celebrate Mass in honour of St Andrew. This year’s CEW theme is ‘Pilgrims of Hope’, giving pupils and staff the opportunity to look ahead to the upcoming Jubilee year. These two Primary 7 learners worked together to create a poster on Jubilee 2025 which they shared with Mr Young on Monday 25th November. Mr Young then took the opportunity to pop onto the school website to give them a preview of the special Jubilee Door of Hope which will be installed in Cathedral later this month:

https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/nl/olga/jubilee-2025-pilgrims-of-hope/