The Catholic Church in Scotland encourages schools, parishes and other agencies to work closely together in order to celebrate the successes of Catholic education particularly during one week each year.  The purpose of Catholic Education Week is to highlight the significance of education, not only for young people but for society as a whole.

Catholic Education Week 2017 has the theme “Developing as a Community of Faith and Learning” and we celebrated as a community of faith with pupil assemblies led by Caritas students, activities in RE classes and on Thursday 16 February all S3 pupils attended Mass concelebrated by our Parish Priests in celebration of the links between school and parish.

In September each year the community of Our Lady’s High School celebrates Our Lady’s birthday.

This year, Caritas Students led S2 to S5 pupils in prayer reflection services, whilst S1 and S6 pupils gathered for Mass in the Assembly Hall. The beautiful Mass was celebrated by our school chaplain, Father McKay, joined by local Parish Priests Father John Campbell of Sacred Heart and St. Lucy’s Parishes and Father O’Brien of St. Joseph’s Parish Cardowan.

Each year in June we celebrate a Mass of Enrolment to welcome our Primary 7 pupils as members of the community of Our Lady’s High School.

The Mass this year was concelebrated by our school chaplain Father McKay and Father John Campbell of Sacred Heart and St. Lucy’s Parishes.

The Pope Benedict XVI Caritas Award encourages and promotes the ongoing faith journey of young people. It recognises that some are already active and committed within their homes, schools, parishes and dioceses and it invites others to respond to God’s call of love. We have 21 S6 pupils working towards their Caritas Award this year and they attended an enrolment ceremony at Motherwell Cathedral.

A number of pupils also enjoyed the opportunity to visit St. Andrew’s Cathedral to meet with young people from across the Archdiocese to pray, sing and chat together and listen to Archbishop Tartaglia’s address at the recent Mass for High Schools.

To further develop their own faith, teachers in Our Lady’s have participated in the “Breaking Open” Conferences for non-specialist RE teachers exploring the key themes from the Senior Phase of This is Our Faith.

These professional learning conferences were organised by the Catholic Church and took place in the Conforti Institute in Coatbridge.

S4 pupils Challum Brown, Caitlin Clancy, David Hughes and Cara James represented Our Lady’s High at the recent Interfaith Conference in Alona Hotel, Motherwell.

The theme of the conference was “Religion and the Media” and the students enjoyed the opportunity to discuss the ways in which religious diversity should be celebrated in Scotland.

During the month of December all RE classes at Our Lady’s were asked to make a hamper of treats to be delivered to the elderly and needy residents of Cumbernauld.

The young people and their families managed to collect enough food to make almost 60 hampers which was a fantastic achievement and demonstrates the faith of our young people in action.

In December the students of Our Lady’s hosted a party for 50 elderly parishioners from our local parishes as well as the Church of Scotland and St. Mary’s Episcopalian Church.

The VIP guests were treated to a Christmas dinner and a Nativity play.  A wonderful time was had by all!