Our Lady of Good Aid Cathedral Primary School

One of the priorities in our 2022/23 School Improvement Plan is reading for enjoyment and pupils and staff have already made great progress in this area. Of course, classes have access to our fantastic library each week and every pupil now reads for at least twenty minutes a day.

On Monday 5th February, two new features were introduced to our weekly assembly. Each week, one pupil and one adult will recommend a book to the rest of the school. The first two volunteers were a keen reader from Primary 5 who reviewed ‘Mega Monster’ by David Walliams and Mrs Campbell who recommended a favourite book from her own school days, ‘The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tyler’ by Gene Kemp.

Using our latest ‘Accelerated Reader’ data, Monday 5th February also saw the introduction of ‘Bookworm of the Week’ certificates, awarded to our Top 10 readers in P4 – 7 (based on number of words read). Congratulations to our first ten winners, pictured below.

Smart School Council, which gives every Cathedral pupil a voice, is continuing to drive forward change and improvement across our school community.

This term, we are working with the organisation ‘Respect Me’ to review our current approaches to preventing and responding to bullying. This work is being overseen by Miss Degnan, one of our Primary 3 teachers, and our twelve House Captains have already agreed on a number of ideas to take things forward. As always, these are set out on our Smart School Council action board so that our whole school community can be kept up-to-date with progress.

In the coming weeks, House Captains will engage directly with parents and staff to review our current anti-bullying policy; develop termly ‘bullying drills’ to regularly remind Cathedral pupils of what bullying is and how to respond to it; run an anti-bullying poster competition; explore innovative ways of establishing a ‘Friendship Stop’ in the playground for pupils who may be feeling lonely or anxious.

We look forward to sharing news of this important work in future newsfeeds.

Primary 4 entertained their families and the rest of the school on Friday 3rd February when they took to the stage for their Scottish-themed Learning Showcase.

Following the arrival in Scotland of some American relatives, here to visit their granny, the children gave a full history of our nation’s most famous poet, Robert Burns. There were Scottish songs throughout, including ‘The Jeely-piece song’, ‘Bonnie wee Jeanie McCall’ and ‘Yi cannae shove yir granny aff a bus’, as well as some traditional Scottish dancing.

The audience were whisked away to a Burns supper, complete with piper and some cheeky toasts to the lassies and the laddies. Of course, the children rounded off the proceedings with – you guessed it – ‘Auld Lang Syne’.

Well done to each and every Primary 4 pupil and many thanks to Mrs Tominey, Mrs McCulloch and Mrs Hamilton for all their hard work preparing the children for their showcase.

As part of Come Clubbing @ Cathedral, Primary 7 pupils recently completed Young Leaders training with our resident Active Schools Co-ordinator, Fiona Russell. The Young Leader Award is a great introduction to leadership, giving young people aged eleven and over the knowledge and skills to organise and lead small games and activities that can be used as a part of club sessions. Primary 7 engaged in a three-week training programme and were awarded certificates on completion of the module. 

Young leaders from P7a are now delivering daily lunch time clubs to our Primary 2 and 3 pupils and there will be similar opportunities for our other P7 classes later in the session. Our current lunchtime clubs are: 

Monday – Football Skills

Tuesday – Badminton 

Wednesday – Dodgeball and ball skills 

Thursday – Team building  

Friday – Cathedral Crafts 

Each and every parent and carer plays a vital role in helping their child maximise their potential and flourish in school. To support them in this, Cathedral Primary has planned a range of opportunities between now and the summer holidays for parents and carers to get involved in their child’s learning and the life and work of the school.

Please click on the link below to access our January – June Parental Engagement & Family Learning leaflet.

Jan – June 2023 Family Learning programme

Primary 5 have been learning about Chinese New Year, which falls on Sunday 22nd January. These three children popped down to Mr Young’s office to show off their fantastic Chinese dragons, a symbol of power, strength and good luck in Chinese culture.

Cathedral Primary wishes all of our Chinese families a Happy New Year and a prosperous ‘year of the rabbit’.

Gong hei fat choy! 恭喜发财

The partnership of home, parish and school is particularly important when children are preparing to receive the sacraments of Reconciliation, First Holy Communion and Confirmation. Although the school plays a key role in preparing children for these three sacraments, these are not school ‘events’ but parish liturgies, celebrated within the parish community.

Now that the restrictions of COVID-19 are well behind us, Father Lamb requests that those Cathedral pupils being presented for the sacraments be formally enrolled for each sacrament by their parent(s) and that their child attends Sunday Mass. As intimated in Sunday’s parish bulletin, all parents/carers intending to enrol their child for either First Reconciliation or First Holy Communion are invited to a short information evening on Tuesday 24th January in St Bride’s Hall at 6.00pm. Attendance at this meeting is strongly recommended as Father Lamb will outline details of the parish’s enrolment process.

Sacramental letter

Children who turn 5 between 1st March 2023 and 29th February 2024 should be registered for primary school during the week commencing Monday 16th January 2023.

Here at Cathedral Primary, registration for August 2023 will take place from Monday 16th to Friday 20th January 2023, from 1.30 – 2.45pm each day. Parents and carers should come to the main entrance and will be directed to the dining hall.

A birth certificate and a current council tax notice must be produced at the time of registration.

Information for parent/carers about registration their child for Primary 1 can be obtained by visiting https://www.northlanarkshire.gov.uk/schools-and-learning/school-admissions/primary-school-registration-p1

Information on submitting a placing request can be obtained by visiting https://www.northlanarkshire.gov.uk/schools-and-learning/school-admissions/placing-requests

Information on submitting an early entry request can be obtained by visiting https://www.northlanarkshire.gov.uk/schools-and-learning/school-admissions/early-entry

Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.

This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.

Luke 2: 11, 12

You only need to cast your eye over the website newsfeed to see just what a busy and exciting term it’s been here at Cathedral. It was wonderful to see the return of audiences to our learning showcases, concerts and Nativity this year, as well as see the Cathedral packed for the Sacrament of Confirmation back in November.

As we arrive at the last day of term, please can I thank pupils and staff for all their enthusiasm and hard work throughout this term: you make Cathedral the very special school it is. Please can I also thank parents and carers, clergy, parishioners and friends of the school for your ongoing support. It is very, very much appreciated.

I wish you all a Blessed Christmas and a very Happy New Year.

See you on Monday 9th January 2023.

Six Primary 6 and 7 pupils represented their Houses on Tuesday 20th and Wednesday 21st December in the very first ‘Great Cathedral Bakeoff’. The standard of baking was incredible and the three judges (Kristina from the kitchen, Mrs Imray from the Nursery and Mrs Ellis, DHT Firpark Primary) had a very difficult decision choosing the winner. However, the winner, with his delicious Oreo cookie cheesecake, was a young baker from Primary 7c. This earned him 5000 House points for Carey. The other contestants earned 2500 for their respective Houses.

Some pupils chose to decorate a cupcake on the day of the Bakeoff. These pupils earned 500 points each for their House.

Congratulations to all of our contestants and many thanks to our three judges.