St Pius X Catholic Primary School

 All through October, Year 4 have been doing a range of activities to celebrate Black History Month. We've been listening to a range of music from the last 300 years from various black artists during our coming in times. The top shelf of our library corner has all had books all relating to black history and  black authors.  We've also been learning about a range of different figures from history and modern influential people today during our reading comprehensions. We've read about Ignatis Sancho, Queen Nzinga, Malorie Blackman, Mo Farah and Katherine Johnson. Each student choose one of these people to research so that they coud write a biography on their choosen person this week.  These aren't the only people we've looked at. We've particularly focused on the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. We created art works insired by his very unique and emotive artworks. We listened to music to colour our backgrounds as Basquiat was very inspired by the music he listened to. ...

  As we come to the end of what has been a very busy half term, I want to take this opportunity to thank all our parents and carers who attended Parents’ Evening this week. Your continued support and involvement in your child’s education play such an important role in their success. The partnership between home and school truly makes a difference to every child’s learning journey. During this week’s liturgy, the children were asked an important question: “Does God always answer our prayers?” We reflected on the well-known Footsteps poem, which reminds us that during times when we feel alone or unheard, it may in fact be that God is carrying us. He is always with us, even when we don’t immediately see or feel His presence. I shared with the children how God has guided me throughout my life and in my role as a Headteacher. Just as He has supported me, I reminded the children that God is always there for them too—ready to listen whenever they turn to Him in prayer. If we are patient...

 This week, we have finished our learning of our Creation and Covenant topic and have been thinking about our over-arching Big Question: How did the world begin?  We started the week thinking about what we can do to look after ourselves:  'Eat healthy food'- Quinn 'Washing our hands and bodies'- Jeevan 'Exercising'- Logan We also thought about what we can do to look after each other: 'Help our friends if they fall over'- Macie-Grace 'Help children to do their writing'- Grace 'Give someone a plaster'- Ivy This then led us to think about what we can do to look after God's world. The children all came up with the idea of tidying up and thought back to when we did litter picking for service week! We decided we all wanted to be good stewards and made a promise to God that we would always help to tidy up.   

  Our Year 6 pupils have stepped into the world of Japanese poetry as they enter The Japan Society’s Haiku Competition 2025–2026 . 📜✨ A haiku is a tiny poem—just three lines—that captures a moment, often inspired by nature or emotions. This year’s theme is “Sound” , so our writers have been tuning in to everything from birdsong to playground laughter to spark their creativity. They’ve worked incredibly hard: listening, drafting, editing and even creating artwork to accompany their poems. The focus, effort and imagination they've shown has been truly impressive! With entries now ready to go, we’re wishing Year 6 the very best of luck. Whatever the outcome, they’ve already achieved something special. 🌟 https://www.japansociety.org.uk/haiku-contest-2025-2026

Earlier this month, Year 2 started to learn about an important girl called Ruby Bridges. We listened to a story about how she was brave and courageous, attending a mixed school when usually black children were segregated. 'I am Ruby Bridges' video It made us think about how we welcome new people and that we celebrate everyone's differences. 'Ruby Bridges was really brave.' 'She stood up for what was right and tried to change the law.' 'It doesn't matter what colour your skin is. Everyone is the same inside.' We celebrated by making posters and medals for Ruby!

As part of our DT project we designed and made healthy smoothies! We worked as a team, getting the ingredients ready before watching how to chop safely. We used a 'bridge' shape with our hand to hold the fruit still, then carefully placed the knife underneath to keep our fingers safe! We really enjoyed mixing the ingredients and then the best bit.... tasting the smoothie! Afterwards, we evaluated our project by thinking if there was anything we could improve.

As a Catholic school, we know it is important to learn about religions, beliefs and cultures that are different from our own. We have made Diwali lamps (diyas) to celebrate the festival of lights, known as Diwali. Diyas are small, traditional lamps which symbolise light overcoming darkness. They are believed to bring good luck and protection.

We've been learning how to add with exchanging over the past few days in Year 4. We started with simple addition without exchanging and have now moved on to sums that involve multiple exchanges. Everyone is improving, but we still need a bit more practice to really build our confidence. So yesterday, we played a Connect Four addition game to practise our addition skills in a fun and engaging way.

This week in maths, Year 1 have been learning how to use part-whole models to show how numbers can be split and combined. The children used counters, cubes and other objects to explore different ways to make numbers within 10. They worked carefully to place the parts and the whole in the right places, talking through their ideas and checking their answers with their partners. It was lovely to see their confidence grow as they began to use numbers alongside the concrete objects. 'I can do 10 take away 2 to find the missing part.' - Eva 'The whole is 6 because 4 + 2 equals 6.' - Nyle 'Because 2 + 8 is 10 I know 20 + 80 is 100.' - Noah We’re really proud of how hard everyone worked and how much fun they had discovering number bonds in different ways!

  'Fizz! Pop! Bang!' Yesterday, some of our students from Year 4 and Year 5 enjoyed a Science Enrichment Day at Chelmsford County High School. Their day started with a Physics lesson where they worked in groups with other schools to design, make a rollercoaster and then present it to the class.  All of the groups were successful in testing the rollercoaster with a marble!! Many skills were used in this task, particularly problem solving.  Next, was lunch which was provided by CCHS and then it was off to Biology to look at, 'why we need microscopes to see living cells.'  The children were very excited to be able to use microscopes and look at some living cells on the slides, which were otherwise invisible to the naked eye! The day finished with a chemistry lesson.  Goggles were a necessity in this lesson as we were learning how to use a bunsen burner.  We then used different chemicals on a taper stick which we held over the flame and were amazed to see that ...

This week in Year 1, we’ve been enjoying some autumn-themed provision alongside our everyday learning. The children collected seeds from pumpkins and were fascinated to see what was inside. They worked together to scoop, sort and count the seeds, showing lots of curiosity and care. At the playdough table, the children used leaf cutters to make their own autumn leaves. They spent time creating different shapes and patterns, chatting as they worked and enjoying the colours of the season. 'We are working together to find the seeds.' - Freddie 'The pumpkins seeds are very slimy.' - Arthur Another popular activity was using tweezers to dot snails and leaves with conkers. The children were very creative with their designs and also explored stacking and sorting the conkers in different ways. It was lovely to see how focused they were and how proud they felt of their creations. We also opened our  Autumn Café this week , linked to our IPC topic ' A Day in the Life' . Th...

 This week we came to the end of this Year 4's time in Forest School. They've had plenty of time to explore, build and enjoy being out in nature. All the students have had loads of fun over the last 6 weeks. Creating bows and sculptures have been a particularly popular activity this year. We're lucky to be doing it in the autumn this year, so we've also been collecting conkers and many have been making a range of creations using them and enjoying the changing colours of the leaves. Today was the highlight: lightig a fire and a snack. "I love creating stuff with nature." "The conkers are amazing!" "I can just enjoy being outside."

 This week, Year 3 demonstrated wonderful stewardship by helping to clean and tidy the school entrance area. The children rolled up their sleeves and worked together to sweep, collect litter and make sure our school grounds looked welcoming for everyone. In RE, the children have been learning about the Creation Story and discussing what it means to be good stewards of God’s world. They reflected on how God asked humans to take care of the Earth and everything in it. By taking time to care for their own environment, the children put this message into action in a very real and practical way God created our world so we need to look after it Blessed

 This week, the children have been exploring our learning question: How are we invited into God's family? We have been learning all about baptisms and looking at photos of our own baptisms to see if we can spot: candles, water, oil and the priests robe. We watched different videos of real life baptisms to show us the similarities within them all and then we had to chance to role play a baptism. Finally, we thought about what prayers and words we might want a baby to hear when they are invited into God's family.  "We need water on the baby's head"- Archie  "Water is for cleaning and washing the bad stuff"- Brian  "It's the sign of the cross"- Valentina and Jesse-Joy "The priest puts the water on the baby"- Grace  "Candle is the light of God"- Logan 

We are thrilled that Year 5 have officially begun their ukulele journey, and they are already making some serious musical strides. Before we could play a single note, we needed to know our instruments! The students have been diligently learning all the key parts of the ukulele. Understanding the instrument is a vital first step, and the class has been brilliant at identifying and remembering all the important features. It’s been fascinating to watch them handle their ukuleles with such care and concentration.  We have already moved past simple plucking and are diving straight into forming our first chords. 'It's really fun learning new songs. We are learning how to strum the chords.' - Tyler  'It's really fun and learning the songs is great - we are learning how to play Batman.' - Mia 'Because we have learned the chords it's now easier to play the songs.' - Oscar  'I enjoy learning the Batman song and I found it interestng hearing all he differen...

A big thank you to our St Pius X community for donating so much for our local foodbank. In total, we collected 137kg worth of food and goods for those in need, which is an incredible achievement! We really appreciate all your support to help us live out our Catholic life and mission and embody our school values - especially service - every day!

This week, Year 6 gathered for a Class Mass led by Father Paul, with parents in attendance. The service reflected on God’s creation and His covenant with us, reminding everyone of the importance of living with faith, gratitude, and care for one another.  Students participated in readings, prayers, and the preparation of gifts, while Father Paul’s homily emphasized generosity, purity of heart, and the call to share God’s love in daily life. It was a heartfelt celebration of faith, community, and our responsibility to care for God’s creation. Well done Year 6!

This week, Year 6 pupils have been busy unleashing their creativity as they plan and draft their entries for the BBC 500 Words Competition . From exciting adventures and magical worlds to heartwarming tales and thought-provoking stories, the children have been working hard to craft original and imaginative pieces of writing. They’ve been exploring what makes a great story — developing characters, building suspense, and using powerful vocabulary to bring their ideas to life. We can’t wait to see the final versions of their entries — good luck to all our budding authors! 🌟✍️📚 For more information visit www.bbc.co.uk/teach/500-words