Our Lady of Good Aid Cathedral Primary School

Primary 7 rounded off their final year of primary school with an entertaining Learning Showcase on Friday 21st June. They chose the theme of World War II and whisked their families and friends back to the 1940s to find out (amongst other things) about the start of the war, evacuation, propaganda and the blitz.

Weaved throughout Primary 7’s showcase were humorous interjections from an elderly Mr Young, Mrs Duffy, Mrs McCoy and Coach Willie (see above)! The showcase concluded with a Primary 1 and Primary 7 photograph of each pupil as the children sang ‘We’ll meet again’. The boys and girls then headed into the audience for a dance-off to ‘Celebrate Good Times’.

What an amazing Primary 7 year group they’ve been! Cathedral school community wishes each and every one of them happiness and success as they head off to high school.

Primary 7 pupils, along with their families and teachers, gathered in Our Lady of Good Aid Cathedral on the evening of 17th June to celebrate their Leavers’ Mass and graduation. The music was led beautifully by Cathedral school choir, under the direction of Mr James Greechin and accompanied by Mr John Pitcathley on the organ. In his homily, Fr Lamb encouraged the children to love God and love others as they move into a new chapter of their lives.

At the beginning of the graduation ceremony, Mr Young talked about running the race ahead of us and encouraged the children not to waste their time and energy either trying to stand out or fit in, but to discover the unique person God has created them to be. This was followed by the presentation of graduation bags containing certificate, hoodie, mortar board, Pope Francis Faith Award and high school tie before awards for Academic Excellence, Sportsmanship, Citizenship and Wider Achievement were announced.

The House Trophy was then awarded to the captains of this year’s winning House, Douglas, before the ceremonial handing over of the batons to our twelve new House Captains. The children rounded off the proceedings with a moving performance of ‘The Circle of Life’ from their recent school show.

Cathedral school and parish communities wish all of this year’s Primary 7 pupils every success in the future.

It’s been another exciting year here at Cathedral and our 2023/24 Improvement Plan has helped our school and nursery community drive forward change to improve outcomes for our learners. Cathedral’s Annual Improvement Report can be accessed via the link at the bottom of this post. However, here are a few highlights of our improvement journey this year:

• Our curriculum, delivered through our Active8 approach, has continued to provide engaging and challenging learning experiences for Cathedral pupils.
• Staff have worked together to further improve learning and teaching, providing pupils with high-quality learning spaces, experiences and interactions. This is something we’ll continue to do through one of next year’s improvement priorities.
• Our new approach to marking and feedback, the introduction of ‘Milestone Moments’ stickers and our bespoke ‘skills mats’ have equipped Cathedral pupils with the language of learning and ensure they are clear about their strengths and next steps.
• We’ve embedded ‘Talk for Writing’ approaches from Primary 1 – 7 and, across all stages, at least 86% of our learners now reach or exceed their expected milestones in writing.
• The Schools Singing Programme, funded by Motherwell Diocese, has given our Primary 4 learners weekly access to high-quality music lessons and supported our choir to go from strength to strength.
• To ensure we are outward looking, we have worked in partnership with St John Paul II Primary, Viewpark, and St Andrew’s Primary, Falkirk, as part of this year’s improvement journey.
• We‘ve invested in 60 new ipads for our Primary 1 – 3 classes and North Lanarkshire digital and computing progression pathways are ensuring pupils across the school develop increasingly sophisticated digital skills.
• Our ‘Attainment Team’ has continued to deliver a range of targeted interventions, supporting a rise in attainment in literacy and numeracy across the school and helping Cathedral Primary make positive headway in closing the poverty-related attainment gap.
• We’re making good progress in returning attendance to pre-COVID levels, with overall pupil attendance now over 93%.

Cathedral’s Annual Improvement Report, which provides detailed information on the school’s improvement journey over the past twelve months, can be accessed via the link below:

Cathedral Primary School AIR June 2024

A team of Cathedral staff headed to George Square on Sunday 16th June to cheer Mrs Loose over the finish line. As Cathedral families and friends know, Mrs Loose was inspired to run the Glasgow 10km by her dear friend and colleague, Mrs McCarthy, who was diagnosed with a brain tumour earlier this year. Both Mrs McCarthy and Mrs Loose have been blown away by people’s generosity and kind messages.

By the time Mrs Loose crossed the finish line, in an impressive time of 55 minutes, the total on her ‘Just Giving’ page had reached a phenomenal £3270 ! This money will go to ‘Braintrust’, a charity that delivers vital services to support the brain tumour community. There’s still time to donate by clicking on the link below:

https://www.justgiving.com/page/katie-loose-1716650252990?utm_medium=fundraising&utm_content=page%2Fkatie-loose-1716650252990&utm_source=whatsapp&utm_campaign=pfp-whatsapp

Well done, Mrs Loose, on your incredible achievement!

And Mrs McCarthy: NEVER forget that your Cathedral family are always here with our love, friendship, prayers and support.

Our pre-schoolers graduated from Cathedral Nursery Class during a moving ceremony on Friday 14th June. Our young learners were joined by their families and friends to share memories of their time in nursery and look ahead to their exciting futures. The ceremony concluded with the children placing their shoes in the Class of 2024 box and being presented with their new school tie in return. Whether staying here at Cathedral or moving on to a different school, we wish all the boys and girls every success!

Bag2School gives families the opportunity to clear out unwanted clothes, contribute to saving the environment and, at the same time, raise money for school funds. Cathedral’s most recent donations of clothes were collected on Thursday 13th June. The money raised will go directly into school funds to support and enhance the learning of our amazing pupils. Many thanks to parents and carers for your donations!

Primary 4 travelled to Glasgow by train on Wednesday 12^th June to visit the city’s Science Centre. As well as exploring the various exhibits, our young scientists discovered more about space in the centre’s state-of-the-art planetarium. Delivered by a live presenter, the children went on a fantastic journey through the solar system, into the Milky Way and beyond! The children also met a real-life NASA astronaut who told the children about his experiences in outer space.

What an incredible adventure our young learners had, from beginning to end!

Cathedral’s annual football awards ceremony took place on Wednesday 12th June. Resident coach, Willie McBirnie, led the proceedings and this year’s guest speaker was John McLaughlan, former Hamilton Accies player and current coach and Development Officer with Hearts. John spoke about the qualities clubs look for in their young players.

This year’s ACE (Attitude, Commitment and Effort) footballers were as follows:

Primary 5: Eva Mills and Ruadhan McPollin

Primary 6: Zara Banks and Harry O’Connor  

Primary 7: Sophie Lafferty and Matthew Carroll 

The Ace Trophy for outstanding sportsmanship was awarded to Luke Buchanan. 

Well done to each and every one of our footballers for their excellent attitude and high level of commitment and effort this year and, of course, to Willie for giving so generously of his time each week to coach Cathedral pupils.

Those families who live close to the school may be aware that a brand new park has opened on Roman Road, the design of which Cathedral pupils were directly involved in. Our Primary 4 pupils have now been asked to create a sign for the park and some of the children visited the fantastic new facility on Tuesday 11th June  to have fun on the playground equipment and get inspiration for their design. We look forward to seeing the winning design at the entrance to the park in the coming weeks.

Cathedral pupils danced the night away at our two Shorts & Shades discos on Tuesday 11th June. There were some very cool summer outfits and lots of equally cool dance moves around the hall!

Many thanks to the Fundraising Committee for organising and running the event.