Our Lady of Good Aid Cathedral Primary School

Mrs Michelle McMullen, Head Teacher of All Saints Primary School in Airdrie, is a well-kent face in North Lanarkshire. After many years of service in Catholic education, during which she has touched hundreds of lives, Michelle retires on Friday 14th February. On behalf of everyone here at Cathedral, this cheeky wee chap wishes his Aunty Michelle a very long and happy retirement!

“Don’t act your age in retirement. Act like the inner young person you have always been.”

(J. A. West)

Primary 1 learners joined their Primary 7 buddies on Wednesday 12th February for some fun art and craft. With Valentine’s Day falling at the end of the week, Cathedral’s youngest and oldest learners worked together to make beautiful heart-shaped gifts to give to someone in their family.

Following input to our Primary 6 and 7 learners on Wednesday 12th February, PC Lisa McCrone spoke with Cathedral parents and carers at the end of the school day about online safety. Although mobile phones and other digital devices have many benefits, PC McCrone highlighted the very real dangers they can pose for children and young people’s wellbeing and safety. Cathedral parents and carers left more informed and equipped with practical strategies to help ensure their child stays safe online.

It was our Primary 3 and Primary 4 learners’ turn to make the short walk to Motherwell Heritage Centre on Wednesday 12th February for a workshop linked to our 150th anniversary. The parish school has been around for an incredible 150 years and the children had the opportunity to find out what daily life, education, industry and the town of Motherwell was like when our school opened in 1875. The chimney sweeping was particularly popular with our young learners!

Primary 5 – 7 classes will visit the Heritage Centre in the coming weeks.

Mrs Findlay hosted a targeted family learning workshop on Wednesday 12th February. Parents and carers had the opportunity to learn alongside their child through a variety of numeracy and mathematics activities, all of which can be used at home. Mrs Findlay also provided parents and carers with materials and resources to take away with them to support their child’s learning outside of school. Just look at those smiles! Who’d have thought maths could be so much fun?!!

PC Lisa McCrone visited Cathedral Primary on Wednesday 12th February to talk to Primary 6 and 7 learners about staying safe online. Topics covered included stranger danger, blackmail, sextortion and cyber bullying. PC McCrone’s input gave Cathedral learners a great deal to think about and left them in no doubt about how vital it is to keep themselves safe online.

Primary 2 parents and carers had the opportunity to join their child in class on Tuesday 11th February for a digital family learning workshop. Each of the three sessions opened with a presentation on how digital can support literacy and numeracy across the curriculum. Our Primary 2 learners then enjoyed using ‘Scratch Jnr’ on their ipad to do some coding with their parent/carer which involved creating moving characters. Very impressive computing skills!

Digital family learning sessions take place for our two Primary 4 classes on Tuesday 11th March. Please check out our current Family Learning leaflet for each class’s time:

Jan – June 2025 Family Learning programme

As part of our 150th anniversary celebrations, Cathedral Primary hosted a classical concert in the gym hall on Friday 7th February. Choir members, those pupils who receive instrumental tuition, and our two Primary 4 classes formed the audience and Cathedral was delighted to welcome pupils from Firpark, St Brendan’s and St Benedict’s primary schools.

Members of the world renowned Dunedin Consort, who have performed in Vienna, Rome and Paris in recent weeks, played a selection of baroque music and also talked to the children about the various period musical instruments. What an incredible opportunity for our learners!

As part of their current science work, these Primary 6 learners were set the challenge of creating a scale model of a piece of engineering which generates renewable energy. Inspired by one of the girl’s dads, who helps maintain wind-farms, the three budding engineers tapped into their knowledge of electrical circuits and constructed a fantastic moving windmill. Impressive!

LIT 0-01a I enjoy exploring and playing with the patterns and sounds of language and can use what I learn.

HWB 0-01a I am aware of and able to express my feelings and am developing the ability to talk about them. 

Wellbeing Indicator: RESPECTED

Our young learners have been exploring numbers all around them this week and are beginning to recognise and order numbers from 0-10. Some learners are already exploring and counting numbers beyond 10. The children have also been recalling and sharing numbers from their own personal worlds such as their house number, the numbers of the buses they use and the ages of people in their family.

Our learners have been identifying rhyming words such as ‘hat – cat’ and ‘ball – wall’. At gathering time, the children have been enjoying the rhyme, ‘Humpty Dumpty’, and have also been reinforcing their knowledge of the days of the week.

The children have been wearing ‘living our values’ stickers with pride. These are building our learners’ self-confidence and helping them make positive choices. They have also encouraged the children to think and talk about how their words and actions can affect others.