Our Lady of Good Aid Cathedral Primary School

A very exciting Primary 3 – 7 Family Learning session is coming up in just over two weeks’ time.

‘Active8’ is now into its fourth year here at Cathedral. The upcoming Family Learning sessions, which will take place on 17th and 19th September, will begin with a presentation on recent developments to Cathedral’s innovative approach to organising learning and teaching at which parents and carers will receive materials to help them talk to their child about their learning. There will then be the opportunity for you to join your child in their classroom to see Active8 in action, share in some of your child’s learning activities and use the support materials to talk to them about their current/recent learning.

Details of the Active8 Family Learning sessions are as follows:

Tuesday 17th September (9.15 – 10.00am): P3a, P3b, P4a, P4b, P5b, P5c, P6a, P7b and P6b

Thu 19th September (9.15 – 10.00am): P3c, P5a, P5/6, P7a, P7c

Ahead of the above sessions, you are encouraged to familiarise yourself with the leaflet you will be given on the day which has been specially developed to support Cathedral parents and carers to talk to their child about their learning. You may even feel confident enough to start using it at home before you attend the workshop!

Please click on the link below to access the leaflet:

Talking to your child about their learning

For those parents and carers new to Cathedral, each month we focus on one of the wellbeing indicators displayed in the above wheel. In class, pupils reflect on and assess their own health and wellbeing and complete their individual wellbeing wheel. At the beginning of each month, prompts for the particular indicator are also posted on our wesbite newsfeed to support parents and carers to talk to their child about their health and wellbeing. PLEASE SEE PROMPTS FOR THIS MONTH’S INDICATOR (SAFE) BELOW.These learners from Primary 5/6 were starting to think ahead to September’s wellbeing indicator and were excited to show Mr Young the wellbeing wheel they’d built during a learner-led technology session. How innovative!

September’s wellbeing indicator is SAFE. Please use the prompts below to talk to your child about this indicator. This will help them complete their wellbeing wheel in school.

Nursery and Primary 1

• I feel safe in my classroom.
• I feel safe in school. 
• I feel safe when I’m not in school. 
• I can name the emergency services. 
• I know what to do when I need help. 
• I know how to help others. 
• I have people who help me when I am sick, in danger or need to learn. 
• I can work safely when using different equipment. 
• I know that medicines can be harmful. 
• I know how to cross the road safely. 

Primary 2 – 4

• I feel safe in my classroom and in school.
• I feel safe when I’m not in school.
• I know how to contact the main emergency services.
• I have people who help me when I am sick, in danger or need to learn.
• I can handle equipment safely.
• I know how to safely store different types of food.
• I know that medication can be used to help with illness but can be harmful too.
• I know how to cross the road safely.

Primary 5 – 7

• I feel safe in my classroom and in school.
• I can perform basic First Aid procedures.
• I know how to contact the emergency services and give full details of the incident and location.
• I know about the risks associated with the use of substances, alcohol and cigarettes.
• I know that taking risks can affect my life in different ways.
• I have someone that I can talk to if I am worried about my safety.
• I am learning about respect for my body and know what behaviour is right and wrong.
• I can handle food and kitchen equipment safely and hygienically.

Cathedral’s House Captains squeezed into a packed cathedral on the evening of Friday 30th August to welcome the Papal Nuncio, His Excellency Archbishop Miguel Buendia, to Motherwell Diocese. It was a grand and uplifting occasion, one which is sure to stay in the memories of our House Captains for many years to come.

Around twenty different languages are spoken by families across the Cathedral school community and there is the facility to read our website in the language of your choice via the ‘translate’ button. Numerous languages are available, from Cantonese to Malayalam (both spoken in Cathedral!).

Please click on the link below for instructions on how to use the translate function:

Newsfeed translate

Back in June, our current Primary 5 pupils were invited to create a sign for the new play park on Roman Road. This talented artist was selected as the winner and we look forward to seeing her winning design at the entrance to the park in the coming weeks. Many congratulations!

Cathedral Primary was a hive of activity on Thursday 29th August for ‘Meet the Teacher’. Pupils had the chance to show their parents/carers their classroom and learning street, and parents/carers had the opportunity to meet their child’s teacher.

John McGarry and Jean Guy from the North Lanarkshire Tackling Poverty Team were also in attendance to sign-post families to  various financial support:

https://www.northlanarkshire.gov.uk/benefits-and-money/welfare-rights-services

We look forward to welcoming parents and carers to our numerous events throughout the course of the year. The next scheduled event is Mass for the Feast of Our Lady’s Birthday. This will be led by Primary 5 pupils and takes place on Friday 6th September at 1.45pm.

I ENJOY EATING A DIVERSITY OF FOODS IN SOCIAL SITUATIONS HWB 0-29a

I AM AWARE OF HOW FRIENDSHIPS ARE FORMED HWB 0-44a

The children at Cathedral Nursery Class have been getting into the routine of visiting Cathedral Café in the mornings for self-serving breakfast and then rolling lunches. Our young learners have been setting the tables, identifying good hygiene and role modelling to the new children starting at Cathedral nursery.

We have welcomed some new children to our nursery and our returning children have helped them to settle in and build new, safe and secure relationships.

Staff have introduced a self-registration board for the children to identify their own photograph and name which matches to their keyworker’s group, helping develop independence and a sense of belonging within our nursery environment.

Our first Smart School Council theme of the session is Our Learning & Teaching and, at their Smart School Council class meetings on Monday 26th August, pupils across the school were asked ‘What are the top five things which make your learning enjoyable and challenging?’.

House Captains met on Wednesday 28th August to discuss the results and update our Action Board which helps Cathedral continually drive forward change and improvement for all of our learners. Based on the feedback from our twenty class meetings, House Captains agreed on three mini projects:

• Cathedral’s learners’ various ‘top fives’ will be collated onto a poster by our Communications Team to share results with teachers and provide a visual for pupils in learning spaces;
• From Monday 2nd September, pupils will take responsibility for weekly stock-checks of resources in learning spaces;
• House Captains, along with Mr Young and Mrs Duffy, will carry out a learning walk of all four learning streets to identify further improvements which could me made

Pupil Equity Funding (PEF) is money given to Cathedral Primary School by the Scottish Government each year to help us provide the best possible opportunities for our young learners. In particular, it is there to help the school support children who experience barriers to learning and who might be falling behind or not getting the same chances in their education because their family is experiencing poverty or other financial difficulties.

There is quite a lot of flexibility in how schools can use their Pupil Equity Fund allocation, as long as it is used in ways which have been proven to help improve outcomes for children and young people who are affected by poverty. Please click on the link below to access a poster showing how Cathedral Primary has used its Pupil Equity Fund allocation in recent years and the difference this has made to our learners.   You’ll instantly see how PEF has benefited your child!

PEF overview

Further information is available on the Pupil Equity Fund page of our school website:

Pupil Equity Fund

Mrs Duffy conducted interviews with our twelve House Captains on Tuesday 27th August in order to allocate their different Smart School Council Communication Team roles:

• Progress updater
• Question finder
• Assembly coordinator
• Class meeting tool leader
• Poster maker
• Staff liaison officer

As you will have read in a previous newsfeed, our first Smart School Council meetings took place on Monday 26th August and our highly-committed House Captains are very excited about leading further change and improvement in Cathedral Primary throughout the course of the year.