Our Lady of Good Aid Cathedral Primary School

Mr Young’s band of festive elves worked as an incredible team on Wednesday 11th December to prepare for Cathedral’s annual Christmas dinner. As you can imagine, feeding over 500 hungry mouths requires very slick organisation and the efficient production line set up by our elves ensured everything was ready ahead of Cathedral pupils descending on the dining hall for the feast of the year!

Cathedral has another talented swimmer within its ranks. This Primary 7 learner did exceptionally well in the recent Motherwell and Wishaw swimming gala winning:

• 1st in the Devine trophy
• 1st in Diving
• 1st Juvenile captain
• 1st in the Foster trophy
• 1st in the 2 lengths freestyle
• 2nd in the team race

WOW!

Cathedral Primary is absolutely delighted to publish our January – June 2025 Family Learning programme!

Along with the usual coffee mornings and learning showcases, there will be the opportunity for parents and carers to find out how Cathedral uses digital technology to support and enhance learning across the curriculum. This will include the chance for parents and carers to work and learn alongside their child in the classroom. Each class has been allocated an individual date/time, so please check this carefully and pop it in your diary.

We have a separate programme of targeted Family Learning workshops next term, aimed at parents and carers whose child receives input from our ‘Attainment Team’. The A Team will be in touch with parents and carers directly about these opportunities.

Please click on the link below to access Cathedral’s exciting January – June Parental Engagement & Family Learning leaflet!

Jan – June 2025 Family Learning programme

As part of our Campus Connections programme, these three Cathedral learners had the exciting opportunity to enjoy Firpark Primary School’s Christmas concert on Tuesday 10th December. They were entertained by the choir before being taken by Firpark classes on a humorous journey through various popular television shows including ‘Dancing on Ice’, ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ and ‘The Masked Singer’. The morning ended with a film of Firpark infant classes performing their nativity, ‘Everyone loves a baby’. Many thanks to Firpark Primary for the VIP invitation!

Primary 3 were busy Christmas elves recently, producing festive popcorn bags and candy canes in their workshop for their Christmas enterprise project. The children set up a stall at the two Primary 3 – 7 Christmas concert performances on Friday 6th December and sold EVERY item by the end of the afternoon. All money raised will be donated to St Andrew’s Hospice.

Primary 3 – 7 brought Christmas joy to Cathedral Primary on Friday 6th December with their performance of carols and poems.

The choir opened the concert with ‘Carol of the Bells’ and ‘Let there be love’ before each year group took to the stage to sing two carols and perform a spoken piece. Carols included ‘It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas’ (Primary 5), ‘Somewhere in my memory’ from Home Alone (Primary 6), the well-known and beautiful ‘Away in a Manger’ (Primary 3) and a vibrant finale of ‘Merry Christmas everyone’ from Primary 7. One of the highlights of the concert was Primary 4’s rendition of ‘All I want for Christmas is you’, accompanied by P4 pupil, Praise, on the drums.

Well done to the children on their amazing performances and many thanks to their teachers for preparing them for the concert and to support staff for decorating the hall so beautifully.

Cathedral Primary choir had the privilege of leading a special service of carols and readings in Our Lady of Good Aid Cathedral on Thursday 5th December. The event, which featured a host of well-known carols, gave those who attended a beautiful opportunity to pause at this busy time to prepare for the coming of Jesus at Christmas.

As always, the choir was conducted by Mr James Greechan, NSSP Choral Director for Motherwell Diocese, and accompanied on the organ by Mr John Pitcathley.

Lunchtime Christmas storytelling has been a Cathedral Christmas tradition for many years, founded by avid-reader, Mrs McCarthy, ten years ago. Discovery Drive was packed with pupils on Thursday 5th December, eager to listen to the first festive story of the season, read by Mrs Gillespie. What a wonderful way to spend a winter lunchtime!

These Cathedral learners played in a friendly campus football tournament on Wednesday 4th December, which welcomed other schools from the Motherwell area. They were thrilled to win all four of their matches, conceding only two goals across the competition. Most importantly, the Cathedral team was complemented for their sportsmanship throughout. We’re so proud of you!

Following a wee mix up of diary dates, Cathedral school community, along with a number of parents and parishioners, found themselves gathered in the hall for Mass on Friday 29th November… but without a priest! Mrs McLeish asked Mr Young what he was going to do, to which he replied, ‘I’m going to wing it!’. That’s exactly what Mr Young did, using the hymns and readings to improvise (with some help from pupils) a St Andrew’s Day prayer service.

Mr Young was very amused to find the above clerical shirt lying on his desk on Wednesday 4th December, courtesy of Fr Lamb! Although the joke did make him chuckle, Mr Young will DEFINITELY stick to being a heidie!

(This hopefully clears up the confusion caused by some children going home on Friday saying, “Mr Young said Mass today!”)