Our Lady of Good Aid Cathedral Primary School

On Sunday 31^st August, this young learner made their way to a swimming competition in North Ayrshire.  She managed to win not one, but two medals at the meet.  For the 50m breast stroke, she came in 3^rd place winning a bronze medal, but in the 50m front crawl she came in an impressive 1^st place, taking gold!  We are very proud of her achievements and look forward to hearing about more super swimming success in the future.

As part of Cathedral’s 150th anniversary celebrations, learners planted 150 daffodil bulbs on Tuesday 9th September. Under the watchful eye of Head Gardener, Mrs Findlay, the bulbs were carefully planted around a statue of Our Lady and will bring a burst of colour to the playground once winter is over and spring arrives. Many thanks to Goulding’s Garden Centre for kindly donating the bulbs.

https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/nl/olga/2025/08/26/gouldings-donate-daffodil-bulbs-to-cathedral/

Our first ‘universal’ Family Learning workshop of the year, for parents and carers of our new Primary 1 pupils, took place on Tuesday 9th September. The workshop focused on Primary 1 literacy, particularly Cathedral’s approach to teaching phonics.

Mr Young opened the workshop by talking about Cathedral Primary’s holistic approach to literacy:

• a rigorous synthetic phonics programme to give children the tools they need to read and write
• the use of decodable reading books during phonics lessons to give children instant success and build their confidence
• exposure to non-decodable reading books to develop vocabulary and comprehension
• access to ‘real’ books through regular visits to the school library
• daily opportunities for the children to apply their phonics and reading in meaningful ways across the curriculum

The remainder of the workshop was led by Mrs McCoy who gave a presentation on ‘Read Write Inc. Phonics’, followed by a live phonics lesson with a group of Primary 2 pupils. The children were absolute superstars and parents and carers were amazed to think that’s what their own child will be able to do in just a year’s time.

Our August – December Parental Engagement & Family Learning leaflet can be accessed via the link below:

Aug – Dec 2025 Family Learning programme

As part of our targeted family learning programme, Cathedral learners have the opportunity to attend our Monday homework club and even bring along a parent/carer to join in their learning. The club, which supports learners across the school, provides a warm, quiet space for pupils to complete their homework, have access to any learning resources they need and get expert help from our Attainment Team if they get stuck. Of course, there’s juice and a biscuit to stop any rumbling tummies and a cuppa for the grown-ups!

Many thanks to our amazing Attainment Team, along with Mrs Devaney and Miss Cawley, for supporting Cathedral pupils’ learning beyond the end of the school day.

“To always be close to Jesus, that’s my life plan.”

Blessed Carlo Acutis has been close to the hearts of Cathedral learners for some time. They take inspiration from his short but remarkable life which included defending the weak in school, building a website to share his faith and helping the poor and homeless of Milan.

Blessed Carlo Acutis will be canonized by Pope Leo XIV on Sunday 7th September, making him the first millennial saint. To mark this joyful occasion, Mr Young has gifted the above statue of Carlo Acutis to Cathedral school community.

We pray that the holy and courageous life of the Church’s newest saint will continue to inspire us.

You can read more about St Carlo Acutis by clicking on the link below:

https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/nl/olga/blessed-carlo-acutis/

I am learning skills and strategies which will support me in challenging times, particularly in relation to change and loss. HWB 0-07a

I have explored numbers, understanding that they represent quantities and I can use them to count, create sequences and describe order. MNU 0-02a

This week in Cathedral Nursery, our learners have been focusing on the wellbeing indicator SAFE, exploring and learning about different ways to keep themselves and their friends safe. Our young learners have been exploring risky play, looking out for hazards and identifying what they can do to make sure the nursery environment is safe for everyone to play and learn.

Numbers have been a big focus for our young learners this week and they have been out exploring the local community in search of numbers. Some of our pre-school learners have been writing numerals with various tools in the mark-making area. Younger learners are beginning to recognise and name individual numbers.

Primary 2a had fun learning about germs on Friday 5th September and how easily they can spread if we don’t wash our hands. Our young scientists used a mixture of glitter and hand sanitiser for their experiment, with the glitter acting as pretend germs. Two children dipped their hands into the ‘glitter germ’ mixture and then shook hands with their classmates. This showed everyone how easily germs could spread around the class. Primary 2a will definitely be washing their hands carefully from here on in!

Cathedral’s nursery learners returned to the forest on Thursday 4th September to explore and learn in the natural environment. The children prepared well for their first adventure and carried out their forest duties confidently, including following the safety rules while using the hammock and tree swing. The new pop-up shelter to eat lunch in was a huge hit! Some children chose to climb up and down the trees before the session rounded off with a game of hide and seek with the Gruffalo, followed by a bear hunt.

Cathedral’s Primary 7 learners made the short journey to Carfin Grotto on Thursday 4th September to join pupils from all over Motherwell Diocese for a special Mass to mark the Year of Jubilee. Celebrated by Bishop Toal, the thousands of young worshippers were blessed with glorious sunshine for the uplifting liturgy of faith and hope.

Many thanks to those parents and carers who accompanied the children on their pilgrim journey.

Pupils in Primary 3/4 were very keen to show Mrs Duffy what they’d been learning in class on Wednesday 3rd September. Inspired by their reading book, ‘The Twits’, these Primary 4 learners from Mrs MacDonald’s class discovered that the Muggle Wump and his family came from Africa.  They set about using their digital technology skills to research an African country to produce a fact file and then extended their learning by creating PowerPoints. Amazing learning!