Many congratulations to the above four pupils whose anti-bullying posters were chosen as the three winning designs to be displayed around the school.
The winning design from Primary 1 features a rocket shooting into outer space with the supersonic message: BLAST OUT BULLIES!
We were so impressed with the beautiful sketches of trainers on a Primary 6 pupil’s design, combined with a message from our ‘Bullying drill’: Stand up, Stand strong, Stand together.
The final poster combines ideas taken from a Primary 3 pupil’s design and a Primary 7 pupil’s design. Both pupils included a rainbow in their poster and we couldn’t resist combining the idea of placing words inside the rainbow and the important message: The power of a friend.
Each winning pupil received a prize of an Easter egg and can take great pride every day seeing their posters displayed around the school.
Despite the inclement weather, Cathedral pupils walked and prayed the Stations of the Cross outdoors on Tuesday 28th March. Fr Lamb gathered each class in the dining hall for a short introduction and prayer before the children began their prayerful journey around the playground. Each station was led by a group of Primary 7 pupils and the 12th Station featured a large wooden cross on top of the hill. As part of their prayer, each class carried a stone with them and these were grouped together in the shape of a cross which read, ‘Jesus loves me.’
All Primary 7 Cathedral pupils had the opportunity to gain the Level 1 Bikeability Award during week beginning Monday 27th March . The input, delivered by our Active Schools Co-ordinator, Fiona Russell, took place in the playground and covered a number of skills:
Over the past two weeks, the children have been listening and recalling the story of the ‘Rainbow Fish’, a fishy tale about how sharing can make
you happy. They have expanded their learning by retelling the story and creating their own stories about sharing and feelings. Some of these have been recorded in the talking photo album by the children themselves, which allow the children to revisit and record their stories over and over again. 
Primary 3 took their families on a whistle-stop tour of climate zones at their learning showcase on Friday 24th March. The children delivered fascinating information on each climate zone with incredible energy, enthusiasm and humour and had their audience singing and clapping along from beginning to end. The showcase ended with a humorous reminder that we live in a temperate climate zone which, although avoids us having to experience extremes in our weather, does mean we need to put up with (yes, you guessed it!) lots of RAIN!
Classes across the school had the opportunity to try out judo on 21st and 22nd March. Judo builds fitness levels and increases coordination, flexibility and agility. The children had great fun and hopefully some of them will decide to take up judo as a long-term sport.
As parents and carers will have read in previous newsfeeds, Cathedral Primary is currently working with ‘Respect Me’, Scotland’s anti-bullying service, to review and refresh the school’s approaches to preventing, reducing and responding to bullying behaviour.
In advance of developing this year’s Tackling Poverty Strategy, North Lanarkshire’s Tackling Poverty Team wants to ensure children and young people have a voice and the opportunity to help the council shape its services. A group of Primary 6 and 7 pupils worked with the Tackling Poverty Team on Monday 20th March to explore how the cost of living is affecting them and other families and suggest what the council could do to help. The team were very impressed with the children’s insight and ideas.
As part of our recent work with ‘Respect Me’, Scotland’s anti-bullying service, Cathedral Primary has developed ‘Bullying Drills’ and these were piloted in all classes on Thursday 16th and Friday 17th March. Regular fire drills ensure pupils and staff know exactly what to do in the event of a real fire. Likewise, the purpose of our new bullying drills is to remind pupils at the beginning of each term exactly what to do if they experience bullying behaviour or see someone else being bullied.
Pupils and staff brought a burst of colour and fun to Cathedral Primary on Friday 17th March with this year’s Crazy Hair Day. As you can see from the photographs – one from the nursery and one from each of our four learning streets – there were some absolutely amazing creations across the school!
