Our Lady of Good Aid Cathedral Primary School

Bishop Toal visited Cathedral Primary on Wednesday 15th November to meet our confirmandi ahead of the celebration of the Sacrament of Confirmation on Monday 27th. The bishop explained what would happen during the celebration and then invited questions from the children.

Please continue to keep Primary 7 in your prayers during their final days  of preparation.

Primary 7 pupils spent a day on retreat on Tuesday 14th November in preparation for celebrating the Sacrament of Confirmation. The children began the day with Mass in the cathedral before heading over to St Bride’s Hall for several activities delivered by senior pupils from Our Lady’s High School who are working towards their Caritas award. In the first activity, the children designed a poster on the seven Gifts of the Spirit; in the second, they made a prayer wind chime; the third invited them to reflect on what makes them unique. Following input from Fr Lamb, the children returned to the cathedral for a time of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.

Cathedral pupils will celebrate the Sacrament of Confirmation on Monday 27th November. Please keep the boys and girls in your prayers in these final days of preparation.

Primary 1 parents and carers had the opportunity to attend a play Family Learning event on Tuesday 14th November. Each individual class’s Family Learning session started with a presentation from Mr Young outlining the importance of play and how it is organised in Cathedral Primary School to facilitate adult-led, adult-initiated and child-led learning. Parents and carers then had the opportunity to visit the Play Zone to learn alongside their child.

Similar Family Learning sessions will take place on Thursday 16th November for Primary 2 parents and carers.

We are currently developing our January – June Parental Engagement & Family Learning programme. Watch this space!

There was an absolutely fantastic atmosphere at our Family Fun Night on Friday 10th November. As always, there was something to appeal to all ages and the queues for the sparkly tattoos and the tombola were equally long. The children’s entertainer held everyone’s attention in the gym hall throughout the evening, with some great dance moves from both the children and the grown-ups.

By the end of the night, an incredible £2148.47 had been raised!

A massive thank you to our dedicated Fundraising Committee for organising and running the event and to pupils and families for turning out in such great numbers.

The inservice day on Monday 13th November will take a different format from usual, with staff being deployed in a variety of ways to lead and take forward Cathedral’s current priorities.

Our four ‘Pedagogy Leads’ will be visiting St Andrew’s Primary in Falkirk. Mrs McCarthy and Mrs McLaughlan will be supporting two St Andrew’s staff to introduce ‘Active8’ in their own classrooms and Mrs Gillespie and Mrs McDerment will be observing St Andrew’s approach to play to see if there’s anything we can learn to improve our own approach and practice.

Mrs Tominey, Mrs Loose, Mr Feeney and Mr Hamill will be at St Brendan’s Primary working with other P4 teachers from across the cluster to plan a piece of Writing moderation. This will ensure there is a shared understanding of standards and attainment across the three cluster primary schools.

Mrs Laird, Mrs Carroll and Miss Cameron will be attending Equalities and Inclusion training at Cardinal Newman High School.

Miss Cawley, Mrs Callaghan and Mrs Findlay will be auditing our current maths resources and ordering additional materials to plug any gaps.

Mrs McCoy, Miss Forsyth and Miss Tyrell will be making final preparations for next week’s Play Family Learning sessions.

Mrs Irwin, Mrs Devaney, Miss Degnan and Mrs McCue will be doing some practical work re-zoning one of our learning streets to implement the children’s ideas gathered through Smart School Council. As can be seen in the above photo, Mrs Irwin met with our twelve House Captains prior to the inservice to have a final discussion about the changes and improvements they would like to see.

Two members of our ‘A Team’, Mrs McMichael and Mrs Cassidy, will be analysing the results from recent maths standardised assessments and looking at pupil attainment over time.

Mr McMullan will be auditing and organising the PE cupboard and our support staff will be assisting with some of the above tasks, as well as getting costumes ready for next month’s Nativity.

Last, but by no means least, Mr Young and Mrs Duffy will be revisiting four Quality Indicators from ‘How good is our school?’ (1.3, 2.3, 3.1 and 3.2) and updating our self-evaluation summary paper and Quality Indicator overviews and evidence boxes. This is in preparation for inspection, which is likely to take place this session.

Our young learners across the school have worked their socks off this term. We wish them a well-earned rest on the inservice day.

We love celebrating wider achievements here at Cathedral! This Primary 5 pupil recently had the fantastic experience of appearing in a stage production of ‘The Sound of Music’ at Hamilton College Theatre. She played Gretl, one of the Von Trapp children, and told Mr Young her favourite song in the whole show was ‘The Lonely Goatherd’ (lay ee odl, lay ee odl, lay hee hoo!).

Well done on such a amazing achievement… and don’t forget to add it to your Rose Trainer Achievement Award record card!

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

• I can ask my teacher for help when I need it.
• I have people around me who help with my learning.
• I have people who help me to do things on my own.
• I can speak out in class.
• I am eager to learn.

Primary 2 – 4

• I can ask my teacher for help when I need it.
• I have people around me who help with my learning.
• I have people who help me to do things myself.
• I can speak out in class.
• I am eager to learn.
• I can overcome challenges and work to achieve success.

• I am making progress in all areas at school.
• I can set targets for my learning and work independently towards them.
• I can overcome challenges and work to achieve success.
• I have opportunities to reflect on my achievements.

Cathedral Primary was delighted to host the Laudato Si’ Roadshow on Tuesday 7th November. The event was delivered by SCES, SCIAF and Justice & Peace and focused on how Pope Francis’ encyclical can be lived out in schools and communities. Mrs Findlay attended on behalf of Cathedral Primary and was particularly inspired by the global call to action and the difference our own school community can make.

Cathedral’s ‘Active8’ approach to organising learning and teaching is now into its third year. However, news of the approach – which maximises pupil engagement, challenge and personalisation and choice – has now filtered out beyond the walls of Cathedral and has even reached a school in far-flung Falkirk!

Following an initial visit on 25th October, two members of staff from St Andrew’s Primary in Falkirk were paired-up with Mrs McCarthy and Mrs McLaughlan and they were both back in Cathedral on Monday 6th November to spend an entire day teaching in an ‘Active8’ classroom. Mrs McCarthy and Mrs McLaughlan will visit St Andrew’s Primary on Monday 13th November to offer Mrs Adams and Miss Gray their support and expertise as they begin to introduce Active8 in their own classrooms.

Cathedral Primary is absolutely delighted to have this opportunity to share good practice and support change and improvement in another school… and we are equally keen to look outwards to St Andrew’s Primary (and other schools) to support ongoing improvement here in Cathedral.

As part of Our Lady’s cluster Primary – Secondary transition programme, Primary 7 pupils recently had the opportunity to work with the high school’s science department. The input was in two parts: one session took place in the science labs at OLHS, where the children were able to choose an experiment to carry out (Lava Lamp or Skittle diffusion), and a further session was here at Cathedral, where the children had the opportunity to conduct a chemical reaction experiment.

Antoni from Primary 7b said: “I loved doing the two science experiments and it’s made me look forward even more to high school.”