Our Lady of Good Aid Cathedral Primary School

As we approach the end of another school year, I have pleasure in sharing the 2021/22 School Improvement Report with you. This report outlines how we have taken forward the priorities in this year’s School Improvement Plan and the ways we have used our Pupil Equity Fund to improve outcomes for Cathedral pupils. It also sets out some of our next steps as we continue on our improvement journey. An updated Improvement Journey Timeline can also be accessed below, providing a useful visual diagram of the various developments and improvements over the past two years.

Cathedral Primary SIR June 2022

Improvement timeline

There is no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought significant challenges to Cathedral Primary School and Nursery Class. However, it has also brought opportunities, providing time and space to review and develop our curriculum, including the development of new progression pathways, strengthen our universal offer in literacy and numeracy, and put in place robust systems to gather data on attainment and use this to inform learning and teaching and improve outcomes for pupils. As we emerge from the pandemic, Cathedral Primary and Nursery Class finds itself in a strong position, with a shared ambition across the entire school community to be outward and forward looking in the months and years ahead.

Please can I take this opportunity to thank Cathedral staff for their commitment and hard work throughout this year, parents, carers and parishioners for their on-going friendship and support and, of course, Cathedral pupils for being such engaged and enthusiastic learners. There’s never a day goes by when I don’t feel privileged to be Head Teacher of such a very special school community!

Head Teacher

Our nursery children, along with their parents and carers, had an absolutely fabulous time on their recent trip to Briarlands Farm. The children were so excited to see and name the new born calf (Cathy), feed the lambs, count the newly laid eggs and explore all the fabulous nooks and crannies that the park had to offer from climbing on Nessie, bouncing on the pillows, go karting, tractor ride, mazes, and the fairy trail! Once back in the nursery, the children were full of stories about their trip.

A big thank you to all the parents/carers who left such positive feedback in the floorbook.

The first of our annual football awards ceremonies took place on Thursday 9th June. Resident coach, Willie McBirnie, led the proceedings and this year’s guest speaker was David Clarkston from Motherwell Football Club. David spoke to the children about his own journey from youth to professional football and then onto his current coaching position with Motherwell.

The Primary 5 player of the year went to Matthew, the Primary 6 trophy to Isaac and the Primary 7 trophy to Kaden. Emmanuel in Primary 7 was this year’s winner of the Willie McBirnie ACE Award, with ACE standing for Attitude, Commitment and Effort.

Well done to each and every one of our football players 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.

As a ‘Laudato Si’ school, Cathedral pupils are invited to respond to the call to be good stewards of God’s creation. As part of our on-going ‘Laudato Si’ work, Primary 7 pupils gave the school grounds a thorough spring clean during the week beginning 6th June. Our playground is surrounded by thick vegetation which is notorious for trapping litter, but the children pulled together to reach even the most difficult of areas. Well done, everyone, on your fantastic teamwork!

All those boys and girls beginning Primary 1 at Cathedral Primary in August had their second induction visit on Wednesday 8th June. While their parents received a presentation on the Cathedral Curriculum from Mrs Campbell and Mrs Duffy, the children enjoyed an exciting adventure trail around the school with their new Primary 7 buddy. This gave them the opportunity to visit lots of different spaces including the dinner hall, the library, the playground and even Mr Young’s office where they each received a gold sticker.

The children finished off in their new Primary 1 classroom where they had their height measured and added their name to the chart. We have absolutely no doubt that the boys and girls will have grown in both centimetres and even more confidence by the time they start the big school on 17th August!

Mr Young, Mrs Duffy, Mrs Tominey and Miss Cameron spent the day in Glasgow on 26th May at a ‘Talk for Writing’ training event, led by the inspirational Pie Corbett.

Cathedral Primary is committed to using the latest and best approaches/resources and ‘Talk for Writing’ most definitely falls into this category. The approach supports children to imitate the language they need for a particular type of writing orally, explore the features of high-quality model texts and then use all of this rich learning to write their own version. The focus is on short bursts of quality daily writing rather than the traditional weekly ‘taught writing’ lesson.

‘Talk for Writing’ will be introduced and gradually rolled out from August. We’re confident it will not only reinvigorate and strengthen the teaching of writing in Cathedral Primary but also raise pupils’ attainment in this area.

It’s been 50 years since the last person walked on the moon and Primary 5 pupils had the opportunity to visit Motherwell Heritage Centre during the week beginning 23rd May to participate in a workshop about our nearest solar system neighbour.

The children had the chance to see real moon rock and took part in several practical activities to learn more about the science behind the moon landings which took place between 1969 and 1972.

The Heritage Centre is running a special Moon Activity Day on Friday 27th May from 12.00 – 4.00pm with moon-themed activities for children of all ages. Entry is free and booking is not required.

A team of Cathedral pupils had the opportunity to ‘christen’ our recently resurfaced pitch on 23rd May with a friendly football match against Knowetop Primary School.

Under the watchful eye of our very own premiership referee, Mr McDermid, both teams played exceptionally well. However, Knowetop emerged the winners at the final whistle, beating Cathedral 3 – 2.

A football tournament is planned for later in the term and Coach Willie and the team are looking forward to regular fixtures next session.

Cathedral pupils had great fun on Friday 20th May participating in a sponsored ‘Clubersize’ event. Expertly led by a very energetic and enthusiastic Mrs Rimmer and Mrs Tomminey, the children had the opportunity to show off their best dance moves, complete with disco lights and glow-sticks!

The children raised an incredible £4496.12! All money will be used to subsidise this term’s school trips as well as support other learning opportunities for Cathedral pupils.

Forty-four Primary 4 pupils received their First Holy Communion on Saturday 14th May in the beautiful setting of Our Lady of Good Aid Cathedral. The church was packed with family, friends, school staff and parishioners for both the morning and afternoon Masses and the children were blessed with good weather which allowed for photographs in the grounds and the opportunity to relax and socialise outside the Cathedral after Mass.

Fr Chromy, Fr Mark and Fr Stephen presided at both Masses and the school choir led the congregation in the hymns, accompanied by John Pitcathley on the organ.

We continue to keep the boys and girls in our prayers at this important moment in their journey of faith.