Our Lady of Good Aid Cathedral Primary School

As part of our Ca-Fi Connections programme, Cathedral pupils from Primary 3a worked with pupils from Room 4 and Room 6 at Firpark Primary to design a garden for the Keep Scotland Beautiful Pocket Garden Design Competition. The children decided to celebrate medicine and our amazing NHS in their design and are absolutely thrilled that their garden has been selected as one of the winners.

The email from Keep Scotland Beautiful reads:

“Congratulations! I am delighted to let you know that your entry has been chosen as one of the winning designs for 2023!  Please pass on our warmest congratulations to your talented pupils.

We are looking forward to seeing your pupils’ design come to life.  A space has been allocated for your Pocket Garden in the online digital showcase that will be the national platform for people to see and be inspired by your work and creativity so it’s time to get growing!”

Well done to Cathedral and Firpark pupils and staff for their wonderful design. What an amazing Ca-Fi Connections team!

Thirteen Cathedral pupils participated in the North Lanarkshire cross country finals at Wishaw Sports Centre on Thursday 2nd March. By the end of the event, Cathedral had come out on top with 1st in the Primary 7 boys category, 1st in the Primary 6 boys category and 2nd in the Primary 7 girls category. What an incredible result!

Many thanks to Mrs Tominey for coaching our cross country club and accompanying the children to the event, and well done to all of the participants, particularly our phenomenal medal winners!

World Book Day took place on Thursday 2nd March and a variety of book-related activities took place in classes throughout the school. As part of the day’s events, Mr Young read a short story called ‘The Princess in the Tower Block’ to the whole school over the tannoy.

The humourous story was a huge hit with the children, particularly when the giant shouted, “FEE FI FO FUM, I’M COMING DOWN TO BITE YOUR BUM!”

“I thought it was really funny. It made me laugh.”   Harry (P1)

“My whole class was laughing at the story, especially when the princess said she’d flush the frog down the loo.”   Lara (P3)

“I really liked the jokes all the way through. The way Mr Young read the story helped me picture everything in my head.”   Lucy (P5)

“I liked how so many different fairy-tales appeared in the story. The part when the seven dwarfs sent their bag of dirty washing to the princess really made me laugh!”   Miley (P7)

Cathedral Primary is currently working with ‘Respect Me’, Scotland’s anti-bullying service, to review and refresh the curriculum, procedures and systems the school has in place to prevent, respond to and reduce bullying behaviour. As part of this development work, two Cathedral House Captains led the teachers’ staff meeting on Monday 27th February.

Following a short introduction from Miss Degnan, who is coordinating the work with ‘Respect Me’, the two House Captains gave a presentation on the school’s current approaches to dealing with bullying behaviour, which included a personal account from one of the children. Teaching staff then had the opportunity to work in their stage groups to read through and give feedback on a draft anti-bullying policy.

An anti-bullying poster competition was launched at assembly on the same day and we look forward to receiving entries from across the school. Winners will be selected from Primary 1, Primary 2 – 4 and Primary 5 – 7.

Very well done to the two House Captains for leading the staff meeting so confidently and articulately!

Two Cathedral football teams excelled in a North Lanarkshire tournament on Friday 24th  February.

During the tournament, which took place at Ravenscraig, Team A and Team B played fixtures with Newarthill, St Patrick’s, St Mary’s, St Teresa’s, Keir Hardie, St Brendan’s, New Stevenson, Christ the King and Our Lady & St Francis Primaries. Cathedral Primary gained 1st position and were announced overall winners of the tournament. Well done Team Cathedral!

Equally commendable, all of our players displayed great sportsmanship throughout the event… attributes coach Willie would describe as ACE: Attitude, Commitment, Effort.

A huge thank you to coach Willie and PE teacher Mr Baird (volunteer) for accompanying the children, as well as all the families who attended the tournament to support and cheer on the players.

The area behind the stage has been transformed into a temporary oratory for the Season of Lent.

Lent isn’t just about giving things up but, more importantly, doing something extra to deepen our faith and grow closer to God. To help us on our Lenten journey, Fr Lamb will celebrate Mass in the oratory at 8.15am every Tuesday and Friday morning, beginning on Friday 24th February.

A warm welcome is extended to all pupils, parents, staff and parishioners.

The overall 2022/23 attendance rate for Cathedral Primary is currently 91.84%, well below pre-COVID levels (the school’s 2018/19 attendance rate, for example, was 93.5%). Although 91.84% might sound high, it actually equates to a pupil missing 16 school days, or over three school weeks, across a year!

Cathedral Primary has set an attendance target for this year of 95%, which means we need to see a rise of just over 3% before the summer holidays. To help improve attendance and reach this target, the most up-to-date attendance percentage for Cathedral Primary will be sent out to parents and carers by text every Monday.

The above table has been designed to help parents and carers understand their child’s attendance percentage and the impact absence from school can have on learning and progress. Every school day really does count, so the support of all parents and carers in helping Cathedral improve and maintain good attendance is very much appreciated.

Please click on the link below to download your own copy of the attendance diagram.

Attendance table

Tuesday 21st February saw the first of a series of Family Learning workshops. Parents and carers had the opportunity to hear about Cathedral Primary’s ‘Active8’ approach, which organises learning and teaching across each school day in a way which maximises pupil engagement, challenge and personalisation & choice. Active8 also frees-up more time for teachers to deliver high-quality direct teaching input to ability groups, as well as work with individual pupils.

Following the presentation from Mr Young and two Primary 7 pupils, parents and carers visited their child’s classroom to see Active8 in action. Feedback from parents was overwhelmingly positive:

“I like the choice and flexibility it gives the pupils. It gives more of a chance for differentiation.” (P4a parent)

“Children seem excited about it. I think it creates independence and builds their confidence.” (P5a parent)

“I’m loving seeing all the children learn in different ways. They all seem so relaxed and happy.” (P6b parent)

“I think Active8 is brilliant! Gives children independence and choice and makes learning more fun.” (P4b parent)

“Great to have freedom to shape own learning to keep engaged.” (P4/5 parent)

“It will help with future learning and life skills.” (P4a parent)`

Please click on the following link to access our Parental Engagement & Family Learning leaflet, which outlines future workshops:

Jan – June 2023 Family Learning programme

Primary 2 pupils from our P2/3 class made fantastic junk models recently as part of their ‘Reduce, Reuse and Recycle’ topic. Each and every one of the children displayed imagination, ingenuity and skill creating their models. Well done, everyone!

Primary 5 pupils ran another successful coffee morning on Friday 17th February and, as always, the hall was packed with Cathedral families enjoying a good blether over tea and cake. A fantastic £835.56 was raised for school funds.

As always, many thanks to the Fundraising Committee for over-seeing the event and well done to our incredible Primary 5 pupils for setting up, running and clearing away the coffee morning. It certainly was Developing the Young Workforce in action!