The season of goodwill . . .

Both St Cadoc’s and Kirkhill primaries have been taking part in the Mary’s Meals backpack project, donating educational materials to less fortunate children around the world.

The youngsters filled their donated backpacks with pencils, toothbrushes, notepads, flip-flops and more before sending them to Africa.

St Cadoc’s managed to gather a huge 136 packs, as well as five sacks full of additional donations, while at Kirkhill, the total reached an impressive 200 backpacks, as well as 50 bin bags filled with old school uniforms.

Elsewhere in the southside, pupils have been showing off their artistic skills in the run-up to the Christmas holiday.

Schools were invited to take part in a city-wide competition this month by submitting drawings for a Glasgow Taxis road safety initiative, under the theme of finding a safe place to cross the road.

Judges have whittled it down to a shortlist of nine P7 entries, including Stephanie McDowell and Emmamarie Taylor from Merrylee primary, as well as Miriam Nicol from Shawlands primary.

Whoever scoops first place can look forward to £400 in art vouchers for their school, with a further five runners up receiving £100.

Judge George Haggarty, of Cordia, explained: “School children across Glasgow always excel in these types of initiatives and it’s great to see how much they’ve learnt about safety in the process.

“Hopefully everyone has enjoyed themselves while taking part and I look forward to seeing the winning entry”.

Artistic flair also extends to Shawlands Academy, which ran a competition of its own this year in a bid to design an in-house Christmas card.

Second year pupils spent two weeks designing their entries, and the winner – chosen by acting head teacher Dorothy Simpson and head of art, music and drama, Maria Kelly – was Rowayda Yamani.

Rowayda’s card was reprinted professionally, and her work will be seen by all those lucky enough to receive a Shawlands Academy Christmas card.