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!).
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.
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! 
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.
Cathedral Primary is committed to ensuring the highest quality of learning and teaching across all classes. As part of our ongoing Quality Assurance, classroom learning visits got underway on Tuesday 31st October. Over the course of the next three weeks, the Leadership Team will visit all twenty classes to observe lessons and engage in dialogue with pupils about their learning. This round of visits will focus on the teaching of Writing, which is Priority 2 in the 2023/24 School Improvement Plan.
Although our discos took place in the first week of term, Halloween made an entertaining return to Cathedral dining hall on Tuesday 31st October. Cruella de Vil and her fantastic team of Dalmatians served up a spooktacular Halloween menu for pupils and staff, including a starter of ‘blood soup’! 
After dedicating an incredible eighteen years to Cathedral Nursery, Mrs Murphy waved a sad goodbye to children, staff and parents on Friday 27th October. Literally hundreds of Cathedral Primary pupils have passed through the nursery during Mrs Murphy’s time and each and every one has appreciated her kindness, nurture and commitment to helping them reach their full potential. Mrs Murphy was never without a smile!
Primary 4 hosted another successful coffee morning on Friday 27th October. It was great to see the hall filled with families and friends enjoying a catch up over coffee and cake. The event raised an incredible £686.00 for school funds.