Our Lady of Good Aid Cathedral Primary School

Our final Lenten Mass took place before school on Tuesday 26th March and parents and parishioners were treated to a hot cross bun and cuppa afterwards. It was a lovely opportunity to relax and chat before the arrival of the Easter holidays. Of course, pupils weren’t left out and were delighted to receive a creme egg from Fr Lamb at the end of Mass.

Primary 7c made the short walk to Motherwell library on Monday 25th March to meet and listen to Scottish children’s author, Lyndsay Littleson. The children heard an extract from ‘Secrets of the last Merfolk’, which tells the story of a boy called Finn seeing mysterious swimmers in the firth late at night. Could the local legend of merfolk living amid the waves actually be true? When Finn eventually meets the magical sea-people, he must put aside his own problems and help in the battle against the young merfolk’s ancient underwater enemy before the last of their kind are lost forever.

A highlight of the visit was Lyndsay Littleson signing the children’s own copies of the novel. Now it’s time for our avid readers to open them up and dive into the story!

Primary 2 pupils visited Motherwell Heritage Centre during the week beginning 18th March to discover more about Knights and Castles. Our young learners got a birds-eye view of a model castle, had the opportunity to dress up in medieval costume and even got to handle real chain-mail. What a great way to round off their current class topic!

As they do every year, the young learners of Cathedral, Firpark and Clydeview campus teamed up on Friday 22nd March to support a local Motherwell foodbank. Under the watchful eye of Miss Cawley, pupils co-ordinated the gathering of items donated by the three schools and Andrew Ewart from the Maranatha Foodbank was, once again, astounded by the generosity of Cathedral, Firpark and Clydeview families. This year, in fact, saw the biggest collective donation EVER from our campus and will make a huge difference to numerous local families. Many thanks to all those who gave so generously.

A team of Primary 5 pupils made the short walk to Motherwell’s Duchess Park on Friday 22nd March to sow wild flower seeds and plant native plants.  The event was run by Starling Learning, an ecological consultancy, environmental education and conservation management agency based in Lochwinnoch. Armed with gloves and gardening tools, our eager horticulturists worked in partnership with pupils from other local schools to sow and plant and can look forward to seeing the rewards of their hard work in the coming months.

Our three Primary 7 classrooms were transformed into court rooms on Wednesday 20th March for an engaging Developing the Young Workforce activity, facilitated by Cathedral parent, Mrs Neville. Mrs Neville works as a Sheriffdom Legal Advisor for the Scottish Courts & Tribunals Service and supported our Primary 7 learners to run their very own court case, the case of the stolen jelly beans. The big question was: who stole the jelly beans, gifted to him by Mrs Duffy, from Mr Young’s office?

The children learned about the Scottish criminal court system before taking on various legal profession roles: lawyers, Procurator Fiscal,  Defence Agent, Court Police Officer, Bar Officer, Sheriff, JP, Legal Advisor and Clerk. Other pupils played the accused and the witnesses.

The verdicts in each class were as follows:

Primary 7a: not guilty

Primary 7b: not guilty

Primary 7c: not guilty

Well done to Primary 7 for engaging so passionately in the court proceedings and many thanks to Mrs Neville for giving so generously of her time.

It turns out that Wednesday 20th March was ‘national proposal day’ and pupils from Primary 7c took the opportunity to make a proposal to Mr Young he just couldn’t resist.

Our three Primary 7 classes will be visiting Motherwell library on Monday 25th March to meet and listen to Scottish children’s author, Lyndsay Littleson. The eager learners turned up at Mr Young’s office armed with detailed information about Lyndsay Littleson and her books, the skills they had used to pull this information together and even a ring and a flower to propose that all seven of the author’s novels, including Euro Spies, Guardians of the Wild Unicorns, Secrets of the Last Merfolk and Titanic Detective Agency, be purchased for our school library. How could Mr Young possibly resist their persuasive charm?! It was a resounding YES!

Due to unforeseen circumstances, it has been necessary to change the dates of several events next term (Primary 1 Mass, Primary 3 Mass, Primary 1 Learning Showcase, School Show, Sports Day, Shorts & Shades disco).

A revised dates for your diary can be accessed via the link below:

REVISED SUMMER TERM DATES 2024

These Cathedral pupils spent part of St Patrick’s Day, Sunday 17th March, making a pilgrimage to St Patrick’s well, just outside the town of Motherwell. The well itself dates back to the mediaeval period and was linked to the foundation of St Patrick’s church. We pray that the faith carried to Ireland by St Patrick will always remain alive and vibrant in our school community.

P4a visited Motherwell Heritage Centre on Friday 15th March for an art and wellbeing workshop. The children explored a selection of paintings, dating back to the 1940’s, by local artist, Millie Frood. Our young learners participated in a guided meditation session before using the various pieces of artwork as inspiration for their own masterpieces.