Our Lady of Good Aid Cathedral Primary School

It is with very mixed emotions that I write this message. On the one hand, I am excited to begin my secondment with the local authority today, supporting schools across North Lanarkshire. On the other, I know I will deeply miss our wonderful children and the day‑to‑day buzz of life at Cathedral.

That said, my new role will still bring me into Cathedral from time to time, and I look forward to sharing in some of next term’s key moments, including First Communions, the school show, and the Primary 7 graduation.

Please can I take this opportunity to thank each and every one of our learners for their hard work and enthusiasm throughout this term. It is always a joy to walk through the school and see everyone so engaged in their learning, from our youngest children in the Nursery and Discovery Drive to our senior pupils in Ambition Avenue.

I would also like to thank Cathedral’s dedicated staff team for their incredible commitment this term. You consistently give your very best for the children in your care, and I want you to know that it never goes unnoticed. Thank you, Team OLGA!

To our parents and carers, clergy, parishioners and friends of the school, thank you for your ongoing support. It is very much appreciated.

I wish our entire Cathedral family a very Happy Easter and a restful spring break. Mrs Duffy looks forward to seeing everyone back, refreshed, on Monday 20th April.

Learners and staff brought a burst of colour and fun to Cathedral Primary on Thursday 2nd April as they celebrated this year’s Crazy Hair Day. As you can see from the photographs, everyone embraced the challenge and came up with an array of wonderfully whacky hairstyles.

This year’s Lenten almsgiving has raised a total of £1068.78 for Missio and £372.67 for Brain Tumour Research, not forgetting our huge donation for the local Foodbank.

Many thanks to Cathedral families for your generosity.

We’re delighted to share some fantastic news from a recent national dancing competition in Blackpool.

One of our talented Primary 7 learners has worked incredibly hard, and her dedication, talent and determination truly shone throughout the event.

She delivered an outstanding set of performances, placing first in both her lyrical solo and lyrical duo, achieving first place in jazz, and finishing as runner‑up in her jazz solo. She also qualified for the Grand Champs and reached the finals in both lyrical and jazz — an exceptional accomplishment!

Our young learners have had a wonderfully creative week exploring patterns in all sorts of exciting ways. The children loved experimenting with potato printing, discovering how patterns are made and designing their own repeating sequences. We’ve also been spotting patterns everywhere through food, games, transient art, and our everyday play.

To support early writing skills, we’ve been strengthening our fine motor muscles with lots of hands‑on activities such as chopping, spraying, and threading. These experiences help build the control and coordination children need as they begin their writing journey.

In our construction area, the children have been using Lego to design and build different types of transport. Their imagination has been fantastic, and they’ve enjoyed sharing their ideas and talking about how things work.

Over in the Smartboard area, we’ve taken time to focus on our wellbeing. The children have been listening to mindfulness videos and calming music, practising how to settle their minds and give their bodies a moment to rest and reset—helping them feel ready for more learning and play.

Cathedral learners and staff took part in a prayerful journey around the school grounds on Tuesday 2nd April, marking our annual outdoor Stations of the Cross.

Each station was thoughtfully led by a group of Primary 7 pupils, with the 12th Station featuring a large wooden cross placed on top of the hill, creating a powerful focal point for reflection.

Throughout this Lenten experience, the children showed great reverence and respect, making it a powerful opportunity for our whole school community to come together in prayer and quiet reflection during Holy Week.

We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you, because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world.

You may have spotted on our newsfeed recently that Primary 5 learners in Winners Wynd have been diving into Textile Technology as part of their Scottish Wars of Independence topic. They began by designing their own tartan before carefully transferring their patterns onto fabric.

On Tuesday 30th March, Mr Young was treated to the grand reveal when two learners proudly showcased their meticulously pleated, hand‑sewn kilts, strutting down the makeshift catwalk of his office with confidence and flair!

It was one of those Cathedral moments that perfectly captured the creativity, skill and spirit of our wonderful learners.

Lenten almsgiving on Friday, 27th March, held special significance for the Cathedral community as Mrs McCarthy continues her treatment for a brain tumour. In a show of solidarity and hope, learners and staff wore their “Hats of Hope” throughout the day, coming together to support the search for a cure for all types of brain tumours. Their efforts raised an impressive £372.67 for Brain Tumour Research, a testament to the love and unity at the heart of the Cathedral family.

Throughout the week beginning 23rd March, Cathedral Nursery has been delighted to host our Stay and Play sessions, along with a sponsored Bear Hunt. We welcomed parents, grandparents and other special people into the nursery to share in the children’s learning and daily experiences.

These sessions offered families a wonderful opportunity to see what a typical day looks like, explore the nursery environment, and join in with a range of activities alongside their child. The atmosphere was full of curiosity and connection as children proudly shared their favourite areas and invited their grown‑ups to play and learn with them.

This week has been full of rich opportunities for our young learners to connect, create and explore.

We’ve been focusing on building positive relationships and supporting the children as they learn to listen to one another. Through group discussions and shared activities, we explored how our emotions can change and talked about how we feel in different situations. This helped us deepen our understanding of empathy and discover new ways to express ourselves.

One of the most popular areas this week was the playdough table. The children looked closely at recipes and ingredients, then experimented with exciting additions such as lemon zest, porridge oats, and dried pasta. They carried these skills into our baking area, where we investigated where lemons and limes come from before deciding to make our very own lemon cake. Tasting their creations was a highlight, and the children loved sharing their thoughts on the different flavours.

To support early literacy, we went on a rhyming-word hunt. Using flashcards as visual prompts helped the children understand what makes a word rhyme. Before long, they were challenging each other to think of new rhyming pairs, turning it into a fun and lively game.