Our Lady of Good Aid Cathedral Primary School

As part of our Ca-Fi Connections initiative, staff from across the campus (Cathedral Primary, Cathedral Nursery, Firkpark Primary and Clydeview Primary) came together on Monday 14th November for ‘Campus Cuppa’. This was simply an opportunity for teaching, support and clerical staff from across the entire campus to get to know one another better over a cup of tea and slice of cake. There was a fantastic buzz around the gym hall, with many people meeting for the very first time.

As mentioned in previous newsfeeds, Cathedral and Firpark pupils have already had the opportunity to tour each other’s schools (Cathedral pupils are very jealous of Firpark’s swimming pool!) and, in the coming months, the children will have the opportunity to learn together in their stage groups.

Many thanks to Miss Cawley (PT, Cathedral) and Mrs McGuire (PT, Firpark) for organising and coordinating the event.

This week at nursery, the children have been enjoying the song of the week, ‘The Big Ship Sails On The Alley Alley-Oh’. This song has sparked lots of interest and discussions about pirates. Through responsive planning, the children have participated in a wide variety of pirate-themed experiences both indoors and outdoors.  The children have been making treasure maps and writing pirate words in the literacy area.  Within the expressive arts area, the children have created their own ships, hiding treasure using playdough and sand and learning about what lives in the ocean.  Within the STEM area, the children have been very busy designing and building their own pirate ships and role playing as pirates.  Outdoors, the children have had the opportunity to fly kites and participate in cannonball target practice! Whilst the children have been enjoying a healthy snack, they have been discussing Pirate Pete, his dog, Strawberry, and the foods they think pirates would eat. The children have then recorded this information in a floor book.

Pupils and staff across our campus community of Cathedral, Firpark and Clydeview Primary Schools, as well as Cathedral Nursery, paused for a one minute silence on Friday 11th November as a mark of respect for the brave men and women, past and present, who lost their lives fighting for our country.

This tradition began way back in 1919 and happens at exactly the same time every year: the 11th hour of the 11th month as this was the day and time when World War I came to an end.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

Lynda Keith was back in Cathedral Primary on Thursday 10th November to further support Cathedral staff in developing and implementing play-based approaches to learning in Primary 1 and 2. Lynda took a hands-on approach, observing the various learning activities across a number of classrooms and in the open area, chatting directly with staff about the challenges and possible solutions, demonstrating play activities with groups of children and helping teachers re-think learning spaces to facilitate play-based approaches. Lynda even had Mr Young and Mrs Duffy walk round the school to find a suitable table for a new writing area in Primary 1b!

Every child was highly engaged in their learning and were eager to talk about the skills they were developing.

Primary 1 and 2 staff will have the opportunity  to visit other schools in the coming weeks to observe play in a variety of settings and bring back the best practice they observe to Cathedral.

Primary 6 pupils WOW-ed their audience on Friday 4th November when they took to the stage for their Learning Showcase. Drawing on their recent classroom work, the children delivered a captivating presentation on the Commonwealth, the role Tobacco Lords played in the development of Glasgow and, very importantly, the dark side of Glasgow’s wealth in times past due to the city’s involvement in the slave trade. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house when the children sang ‘Something inside so strong’, but it wasn’t long before the boys and girls had everyone smiling again when they encircled the entire audience and sang a vibrant rendition of ‘Children of the World’.

Well done to each and every P6 pupil and many thanks to Mrs McCarthy, Mrs Cassidy and Miss Carr for inspiring and bringing out the absolute best in their young learners!

Two beautiful displays have appeared in our library ahead of Catholic Education Week, which takes place later this month. The first showcases a range of books on the Catholic faith for the children to dip into over the coming weeks. The second, which is part of our Developing the Young Workforce (DYW) display, has a special focus on vocations to the priesthood or religious life and includes the personal qualities and qualifications individuals would require in order to respond to one of these special callings.

Primary 2 visited Motherwell Heritage Centre on Thursday 27th October to find out more about their local area, which is their topic for this term. The children learned lots of new facts about their home town, completed a travel survey on how they get to school and also created a map of their local area.

‘Smart School Council’ gives every Cathedral pupil a voice and, under the leadership of our twelve House Captains, helps drive forward change and improvement in Cathedral Primary. Our current priorities are focused on Reading for Enjoyment and House events for the year ahead.

As well as every Cathedral pupil participating in a fortnightly class meeting, the children are kept up-to-date on developments at our weekly assemblies and via the Smart School Council Action Board (see above), which is located in the main corridor.

We look forward to sharing improvements brought about by our Smart School Council with parents and carers throughout the course of the year.

On Thursday 27th October, our Primary 6 pupils had the opportunity to visit The Travelling Gallery, a contemporary art gallery in a bus which set up for the day in the school playground.  This year’s exhibition was entitled “Re-connect”, very apt as the country moves out of COVID restrictions.

All of the children thoroughly enjoyed their visit to the gallery and were inspired by the artwork.

‘I really enjoyed learning about all the artists and all of their different art styles.’   (Freya)

‘I really enjoyed it. The artists worked really hard and their art was outstanding.’ (Charlotte)

‘It was very cool and I was surprised how big it was inside!’ (Jakub)

‘I like the fact that you could look through the artists’ sketchbooks.’ (Monica)

Our Halloween discos, which took place on the evening of Tuesday 25th October, were a freakishly huge success. The children’s costumes were fantastic and every boy and girl from Primary 1 all the way up to Primary 7 had an absolutely great time on the dance floor. The above photograph of four Primary 7 pupils who coordinated their costumes to form the Ghostbusters team caught Mr Young’s eye straight away!

Many thanks to the fundraising committee for organising and coordinating the discos, to the amazing DJ and to all those teachers who gave of their time to come along and join in the fun.