Our Lady of Good Aid Cathedral Primary School

Our January – June Family Learning programme has now been finalised. Along with the usual coffee mornings and learning showcases, there will be the opportunity for Primary 3 – 7 parents to find out about ‘Talk for Writing’. Parents and carers across the school will also have the chance to enjoy reading a book with their child during the week of World Book Day. Please click on the link below to access our January – June Parental Engagement & Family Learning leaflet:

Jan – June 2024 Family Learning programme

We’re particularly excited about our Parents & Partners Improvement Forum, which will take place on Thursday 18th January. This event will bring together parent/carer representatives from all seven stages (Primary 1 – 7) as well as various partners who contribute to Cathedral pupils’ learning, wellbeing and development. There will be the opportunity for delegates to evaluate Cathedral Primary using four Quality Indicators from ‘How good is our school? 4’ and then contribute to identifying and developing priorities for the 2024/25 School Improvement Plan. PLEASE NOTE SPACES FOR THIS EVENT ARE VERY LIMITED (8 PARENTS PER STAGE) AND MUST BE BOOKED IN ADVANCE VIA THE LINK WHICH WILL BE SENT OUT THIS WEEK.

Pupils, staff, families and parishioners celebrated Education Sunday at the vigil Mass in St Luke’s on Saturday 18th and the morning Mass in OLGA Cathedral on Sunday 19th November. Cathedral pupils led the bidding prayers and offertory and senior pupils from Our Lady’s High School the readings and Catholic Education Week address.

Across our schools and parishes, we celebrate and give thanks for the precious gift of Catholic Education which seeks to develop and nurture the whole person, build a community between home, school and parish and continue the Church’s mission of calling young people to discover and enter into a living relationship with Jesus Christ.

The four schools which make up Our Lady’s Cluster have put together an electronic newsletter for Catholic Education Week, which can be accessed via the link below.

Catholic Education Week 2023 – OLHS Cluster Newsletter

The purpose of Catholic Education Week is to highlight the significance of Catholic education, not only for young people but for society as a whole.  Students, parents, teachers and others …

Go to this Sway

An array of Viking warriors and Viking gods took to the stage on Friday 17th November for the Primary 3 Learning Showcase. The boys and girls took their audience on an exciting historical journey, filled with fascinating facts about Viking daily life, jobs, clothes, trading, invasions and beliefs. The children sprinkled in some humour when they articulated their Viking skills, which included raiding and pillaging, and also took to the catwalk for a Viking fashion show! Primary 3’s showcase finished with a rousing song, ‘Vikings Rock’, which got the entire audience clapping along.

Well done to the boys and girls for showcasing their learning in such a creative and engaging way and to Mrs Loose, Mrs Callaghan and Mrs Carroll for all their hard work preparing the children for their special performance.

Our Play Zone was a hive of activity on Thursday 16th November for the second day of play Family Learning, this time for our Primary 2 classes. Once again, Mr Young began each individual class’s session with a presentation on Cathedral’s approach to play and then parents and carers had the opportunity to visit the Play Zone and learn alongside their child.

Feedback from parents was exceptionally positive:

“Jade loves the creative station. She loves to make different things from various materials.”

“Great way to learn skills for the future.”

“Fantastic… really informative and it’s great to see how Matthew learns and enjoys different elements of play.”

“It allows Harry to express himself and understand through creativity how the world works.”

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!