Our Lady of Good Aid Cathedral Primary School

There was a packed hall on Friday 13th June for Cathedral’s 2025 nursery graduation. Our young learners shared what they would like to be when they are older and entertained their families with different songs about moving on from nursery to Primary 1.

There was barely a dry eye in the house when each child came onto the stage, dropped their nursery shoes into the ‘Class of 2025’ box and received their new school tie.

Many congratulations to our nursery learners on all your successes and achievements over the past two years. Whether you’re staying here at Cathedral, or moving on to a different school, we wish you well!

It was perfect weather for this year’s Sports Day on Thursday 12th June. Primary 7 led classes in an enthusiastic warm-up before everyone headed to the pitch for traditional races including three-legged, sack, egg and spoon and sprints.

Well done to all Cathedral learners for their enthusiastic participation and congratulations to this year’s medal winners!

Primary 6 learners spent a fascinating day at Glasgow Science Centre on Wednesday 11th June. The fun started even before they arrived as all three classes made the trip to Glasgow by train.

Once there, our young scientists spent time exploring the various floors to try out different experiments including using friction to burn a hole in a piece of paper. Given their current topic, the children were particularly interested in the human body section where they investigated the difference between a smoker’s lung and a healthy lung and attempted to run as fast as an athlete.

The main highlight of the trip was the planetarium, where the children had the chance to visit Mars, Jupiter and find out more about Planet Earth.

Following lunch in the sun by the River Clyde, Primary 6 jumped back on the train for their return journey to Motherwell. What a fantastic day of learning!

It is with a heavy heart and much sadness that I share the news that Zac Gunn passed away on the evening of Monday 9th June, surrounded by his mum, dad and gran. Zac received a lung transplant in Great Ormond Street Hospital on 17th May and put up a brave fight right to the end.

During his short life, Zac lifted the spirits and brought deep joy to more people than most of us could ever hope to touch in our lifetime. Zac was, quite simply, the most beautiful, gracious and courageous boy I ever encountered and he never failed to live his wee life to the absolute full. Zac leaves a huge hole in each of our hearts and in the Cathedral school community. He will be sorely missed.

We send our sincere condolences to Zac’s family, particularly to his mum and dad, big brother and gran, assuring them of our love and prayers at this sad and difficult time.

There wasn’t a more devout wee boy than Zac. We ask Jesus to receive him into his loving arms in heaven, where there will be no more tears, pain or suffering.

Eternal rest grant unto Zac, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May Zac’s soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

Mr Young

Motherwell player (and Cathedral parent), Stephen O’Donnell, attended Cathedral’s weekly assembly on Monday 9th June to assist Coach Willie in presenting this year’s football awards. Prior to the awards ceremony, Stephen was interviewed by Primary 7 learner and keen footballer, Harry O’Connor. In answer to one of the questions, Stephen spoke about the importance of working hard and doing your best, no matter what you decide to do in life.

Many congratulations to all Cathedral learners who received an award in recognition of their football achievements this year.

Every change and improvement we make in Cathedral is ultimately about improving outcomes for our learners, so it’s vitally important pupils are directly involved in the school’s ongoing improvement process. Learners had the opportunity to explore Cathedral’s 2025/26 improvement priorities at our whole-school assembly on Monday 9th June and will help take these forward from August through Smart School Council.

Cathedral has two school priorities next year, one focusing on how we learn and teach (pedagogy) and the other on what we learn and teach (curriculum):

1. Continue to secure high learner engagement and attainment across all stages by further developing and embedding high-quality adult-initiated and learner-led learning experiences.
2. Build the capacity and confidence of all teaching staff to teach Spanish and British Sign Language to their own class and embed stimulating language learning opportunities within day-to-day learning.

An exciting part of priority 1 will be setting up a new Primary 3 – 7 ‘Investigation and Innovation Hub’. This space will facilitate rich opportunities for learners to engage and collaborate in investigation, enquiry, problem solving and open-ended projects, with the aim of cultivating and developing creativity, innovation and invention.

As always, our improvement priorities have been set out on a child-friendly poster (see above). A full copy of Cathedral’s 2025/26 Annual Improvement Plan will be published on the website before the summer holidays.

As part of the school’s 150th anniversary celebrations, Cathedral hosted a friendly football tournament on Friday 6th June. The two Cathedral teams were joined by teams from St Brendan’s Primary, St Teresa’s Primary and Our Lady and Saint Francis Primary. All four schools played exceptionally well and showed great sportsmanship. However, it was St Brendan’s who ultimately came out top and lifted the trophy. Many congratulations!

Back on 12th March, these four Primary 5 athletes came first in their category in the North Lanarkshire cross country finals. They were delighted to receive an engraved shield in recognition of their fantastic achievement on Friday 6th June and headed straight to Mr Young’s office to show it off. Well done, once again, boys!

These terrific twins were recently awarded a trophy for a drama they performed together at Girls Brigade, all about looking after our environment. While showing off their trophy, they were also keen to tell Mr Young that a favourite Girls Brigade song is one we also sing here at Cathedral: ‘Our God is a great big God’. Mr Young has decided to include it during assembly on Monday 9th June!

This Primary 5 learner had a big night on Wednesday 4th June when he signed as a goalie for Partick Thistle Academy. What an exceptional wider achievement to add to your Rose Trainer Achievement Award record card!

Many congratulations from everyone here at Cathedral.