Our Lady of Good Aid Cathedral Primary School

Smart School Council gives every Cathedral pupil a voice and is key to driving forward change and improvement across our school community. The first class meetings of the year took place on Monday 26th August and Cathedral learners were asked a question linked to Priority 1 of our 2024/25 School Improvement Plan:

‘What are the top five things that make your learning enjoyable and challenging?’

House Captains will gather and collate feedback from the twenty separate class meetings before populating our Smart School Council action board. Watch this space!

You can find out more about Smart School Council by clicking on the link below:

Smart School Council | (glowscotland.org.uk)

Campus Council gathered for their opening meeting of the year on Monday 26th August. The children from the three schools took some time to get to know one another before discussing and planning our first 2024/25 Campus Connections learning activity: a joint Cathedral – Firpark – Clydeview art project! School tours have also been arranged for any new pupils across the three schools.

Campus Connections is co-ordinated and overseen by Miss Cawley (Principal Teacher, Cathedral Primary School) and Mr Cotter (Depute Head Teacher, Firkpark & Clydeview Primary Schools). Further information about this important aspect of the life and work of our school is available via the link below:

Campus Connections | (glowscotland.org.uk)

Every change and improvement we make in Cathedral is ultimately about improving outcomes for pupils, so it’s vital our young learners are directly involved in the school’s ongoing improvement process. Pupils had the opportunity to explore Cathedral’s 2024/25 improvement priorities at our whole-school assembly on Monday 26th August and then began to take them forward immediately afterwards during our first Smart School Council class meetings of the year.

We have three school priorities this year and these have been put into child-friendly language to make them accessible to learners:

• My teacher will help me reach my full potential by giving me daily access to the very best learning spaces, learning experiences and learning interactions.
• My teacher will teach inspiring RE lessons which help me grow in my faith and equip me to make a positive difference in school, at home, in my parish and in the local and global community.
• My teacher will help me to develop my digital technology skills and give me opportunities to use these in my learning in every area of the curriculum.

Our pupil Improvement Plan poster and Cathedral’s 2024/25 Annual Improvement Plan can be accessed via the links below:

Pupil SIP 2024-25

24.25 Cathedral PS AIP

You may also be interested in the School Improvement page of our website, which includes an overview of improvement priorities from September 2020 to June 2024.

School Improvement Plan overview

Priority 2 in this year’s Annual Improvement Plan is: ‘Improve the quality and increase the impact of Religious Education RC across all stages through a systematic and active review of the ten characteristics in the Charter for Catholic Schools in Scotland.’

A vital way our school community will take forward this aspect of our Improvement Plan is by adopting a more formal approach to pupils promoting and leading the Catholic dimension of our school which, as outlined in Cathedral’s mission statement, places Christ and Our Lady at the centre.

Following the submission of applications from Primary 5 – 7 pupils, a Junior Chaplaincy Team (known as IGNITE) has been established and our sixteen new Pupil Chaplains met for the first time on Friday 23rd August. The team’s mission, under the leadership of Mrs Carroll, is to spark faith and devotion in both pupils and staff. Our Pupil Chaplains will be officially commissioned by Fr Lamb at the Primary 1 Welcome Mass on Thursday 26th September.

Please click on the link below and take a few moments to find out more about IGNITE, including their plans for the year ahead.

IGNITE Junior Chaplaincy Team | (glowscotland.org.uk)

The National Schools Singing Programme, funded by Motherwell Diocese, got back up and running on Thursday 22nd August. Mr James Greechan, NSSP Choral Director, met our new Primary 4 pupils for the first time and the boys and girls thoroughly enjoyed the various songs and interactive music activities. Mr Greechan also began auditions for the choir. Given we have 89 Primary 5 pupils this year, competition for a place in Cathedral’s distinguished choir is going to be very tough indeed!

You can find out more about the programme on the NSSP website:

Where We’ve Funded | National Schools Singing Programme (nssp.org.uk)

Our first Family Learning workshop of the year, for parents and carers of our new Primary 1 pupils, took place on Thursday 22nd August . The workshop focused on Primary 1 literacy, particularly Cathedral’s approach to teaching phonics.

Mr Young opened the workshop by talking about Cathedral Primary’s holistic approach to Literacy:

• a rigorous synthetic phonics programme to give children the tools they need to read and write
• the use of decodable reading books during phonics lessons to give children instant success and build their confidence
• exposure to non-decodable reading books to develop vocabulary and comprehension
• access to ‘real’ books through regular visits to the school library
• daily opportunities for the children to apply their phonics and reading in meaningful ways across the curriculum

The remainder of the workshop was led by Mrs McCoy who gave a presentation on ‘Read Write Inc. Phonics’, followed by a live phonics lesson with a group of Primary 2 pupils. The children were absolute superstars and parents and carers were amazed to think that’s where their own child will be in just a year’s time.

Our August – December Parental Engagement & Family Learning leaflet can be accessed via the link below:

Aug – Dec 2024 Family Learning programme (1)

As you will have read in a newsfeed item posted earlier this week, Provost Duffy paid a visit to Cathedral Primary on Tuesday 19th August ahead of the Papal Nuncio’s visit to Motherwell next week. The Provost’s visit to Cathedral has been shared on North Lanarkshire social media, including the council’s website:

Pupils prepare for Papal Nuncio’s visit | North Lanarkshire Council

Cathedral school community was very proud to read what Provost Duffy said about his visit:

“It’s inspiring to see the enthusiasm and dedication of these young people as they prepare for such a significant visit. 

“The school has such a warm and friendly environment, and I’m grateful to all the staff and pupils for extending such a warm welcome when we visited. The pupils are wonderful representatives of their community.”

As a ‘Laudato Si’ school, Cathedral pupils are invited to respond to the call to be good stewards of God’s creation. On Wednesday 21st August, a team of enthusiastic Primary 5 pupils, under the direction of an equally enthusiastic Mrs Findlay, donned high-vis vests and tackled the litter that had blown into and accumulated in the school grounds over the summer holidays. As you can see from the photograph, the children filled numerous bags with litter and had our yard looking spick and span once again by the time they were done. What a team!

Cathedral Primary received a special visit from the Provost, Councillor Duffy, and the Convener of Education, Councillor McBride, on Tuesday 20th August. Claire O’Neill, Primary RE Advisor, was also in attendance.

The Provost and Convener met with our twelve House Captains ahead of the Papal Nuncio’s visit to Motherwell Diocese in just over a week’s time. Our captains shared a whole host of information with our guests about His Excellency Archbishop Miguel Buendia, including their thoughts about being part of the special Mass which takes place in Motherwell Cathedral on Friday 30th August. There was then the opportunity for the children to ask the Provost and Convener about their particular roles and responsibilities within North Lanarkshire Council.

The Provost and Convener finished their visit to Cathedral with a tour of the school and were both exceptionally impressed by our learners’ manners, behaviour, engagement and high standard of work.

Cathedral pupils spent part of assembly on Monday 19th August learning more about the important topic of mental health from local charity YAMS (You are my sunshine). The children learned that many different things can impact on our mental health, the importance of having someone they trust whom they can talk to and how vital it is to reach out to anyone who looks down or upset.

Mr Young reminded the children how important our first two school values of Love and Connection are to positive mental health.

You can find out more about YAMS via the link below:

https://www.yams.org.uk