St Pius X Catholic Primary School

💃Swish came to give our class a taster of their new performing arts classes today! We had a great time learning a dance routine and singing to 'I'm a believer.' We learnt to warm up our bodies and voices, work collaboratively, follow instructions, build our confidence when performing and.... to have FUN!

Black History Month in Year 2

October is Black History Month. In Year 2 we read a lovely book called 'The Proudest Blue' by Ibtihaj Muhammad, a Muslim Olympic medalist and author. You can read the story here . It made us think about how we are all different and it reminded us of the importance of family connection. It was a good example of our school values of 'kindness' and 'integrity.' In Art, w e have studied Lubaina Himid as part of our Black History Month artist study. She loved using bright colours; her mother was a textile artist. Find out more about here on the Tate Kids website here . We noticed these things in the installation ‘Naming the Money:’ People Drums Bags of money Colourful Standing on wood We practised mixing colours, using primary colours to make secondary colours. Then we painted our own silhouette in the style of Lubaina Himid - bright and colourful!

Learning about the Importance of Families in Year One!

For our Religious Education lesson today, students answered the big question "Why do we have a family and who is in it?". We discussed what it means to be a part of God's family and talked about how families show love and care for one another. Students loved sharing stories of how their families take care of them by feeding them, giving them hugs, providing them with clothes, taking them to do fun activities, etc. Students then wrote a sentence on a sticky note (e.g., "My family cares for me") and drew a picture of who is in their family. We discussed how every family is different, and how God created us this way!

The Wednesday Word

Please find this week's Wednesday Word below:

Sensational Senses - Year 2

- October 08, 2024

As we continue to learn about our amazing bodies in IPC, we have been exploring our 5 senses and using our Science enquiry and knowledge skills. We walked around the school grounds and recorded what we could see, hear, feel, smell and taste (well, we thought about our lunch!). It was interesting to compare what others had recorded. Some of us were lucky enough to spot a squirrel and a cat on the field. We used adjectives to describe the things that we could feel - smooth, bumpy, scratchy. We spotted some rosemary growing along the path so we had a good smell of that too! Following on from this, we made connections to our internal body parts. For example, we have already learnt about the brain in 'Brainwave,' so we knew that the brain sends and receives signals. Our eyes are connected to our brain by our 'optic nerve.' We used mirrors to see what colour our eyes were, and noticed our pupils getting bigger and smaller depending on how bright the classroom was! We also m

Climbing experts in Reception!

- October 07, 2024

We are sure you have noticed that Reception have a new climbing frame! The children enjoyed watching Mr Taylor making our frame and were all keen to say thank you and to play on it. We spoke about our school value of service that Mr Taylor had displayed to us. We then took it in turns to try out the climbing frame and we had a wonderful time. The children enjoyed exploring but also were developing their gross motor skills, their ability to make up games with their friends and their ability to take turns! We are sure that this new climbing frame will help us develop our 4 learning powers during our outdoor play!

Mikey Maths visits Reception!

- October 07, 2024

Last week, Reception were working on the counting principles in maths. The children had to teach our maths puppet - Mikey Maths - how to count some of his toys. He kept making errors such as missing numbers in the number string, counting some objects twice, not stopping at the final number. The children came up with these rules for Mikey Maths: - Count one object at a time and move it to a new space if you can. - Use one number for one object. -The last number you use is the total amount he has. We have then been practising using these counting principles by ourselves by counting our own cubes. We have also had a range of objects out in our continuous provision for the children to count. The children had to show their learning power of resourcefulness, choosing the right objects from their maths resources to count. They also showed resilience, continuing to try to count the objects successfully! Brilliant counting skills Reception!

Capture the Gold! Y2 Maths

- October 07, 2024

We watched a Number Blocks episode to remind us of the bonds to 10. The video can be watched here . Then we played ‘Capture the Gold,’ working with a partner to apply our knowledge of number bonds to 10. We practised taking turns collaborating with our friends. This involved recalling facts such as 8+2 =10 and If I have 7, I need 3 more.

SEND Support

⚡Essex County Council are offering an online learning event for parents and carers of children with SEND in Essex on the 23rd November from 6pm to 8:30pm 💻They have taken feedback directly from parents/carers about the kinds of topics that you feel would be helpful to learn more about. They have skilled practitioners from the field of SEND to deliver these sessions live on the evening ⚡To view the session and book, visit: https://forms.office.com/r/fdNMbfyuCF If you are unable to attend then do not panic sessions will be recorded and uploaded to the Essex Local Offer shortly after the event, so you will be able to access them in your own time.

Speech & Language Support

Essex Local offer 🗣️ Introduction to Speech and Language Challenges 📅 When: Wednesday 23rd October, 10:00am - 12:00pm 🖥️ Where: Online via Zoom 💬 Cost: Free This workshop is designed for parents and carers of children under 5 years of age and is delivered by highly experienced Speech and Language Therapists from Speech & Language UK. During the workshop, you will: Learn more about how and why children learn to communicate 🏠 Discover new strategies to help your child at home 📚 Receive useful resources 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Hear from other parents and their experiences 👉 To join the session, email tlc@essex.gov.uk No diagnosis is required to participate. Note: If your child is over 5, you may find it helpful to contact Speech and Language UK’s advice line or visit their website: https://speechandlanguage.org.uk/

Maths Useful Websites

At St. Pius X Catholic School, we take a Maths Mastery approach to help our pupils become confident mathematicians. Below are links to some useful websites that children may enjoy using at home. Please note that none of these activities are compulsory, and no homework needs to be returned to school. White Rose Home Learning Workbooks - Y1 to Y6 Top Marks Maths Games - Reception to Y6 BBC Bitesize KS1 BBC Bitesize KS2 Y5 and Y6 Corbett Maths Revision Workbooks Homework links: Times Table Rock Stars Y6 SAT’s Bootcamp

E Safety Games

At St. Pius X Catholic Primary School, w e understand the responsibility to educate our pupils on E-Safety issues; teaching them the appropriate behaviours and critical thinking skills to enable them to remain safe when using the internet, in and beyond the context of the classroom. Across the school, children have been taught some aspects about E Safety and this will continue throughout the year. Sometimes, children may wish to continue discussions at home or maybe ask further questions. To support parents, please see the below internet links that have useful information and ideas how to discuss E Safety with children. Internet Matters NSPCC E Safety Training for parents

Performance poetry in year 3!

- October 03, 2024

In English in year 3, we have started a new unit on poetry. With our partners we used both voice and movement to bring a comedic poem to life in front of the class. We had to really focus on our speaking skills to get our voices to reach the back of the room. Next, we will be writing riddles and poems using devices such as alliteration and similes! The poem was really funny, I did the actions while Bella did most of the reading Henry

🏆 Champions of the River Chelmer Partnership Football Tournament! ⚽

- October 03, 2024

🏆 Champions of the River Chelmer Partnership Football Tournament! ⚽ What a fantastic day for St Pius X as we celebrate our incredible boys’ and girls’ teams, who have both been crowned champions of the River Chelmer Partnership Football Tournament! 🎉 Both teams showed remarkable determination, skill, and teamwork, going undefeated throughout the entire competition! Their hard work has certainly paid off, as they returned triumphantly with trophies and medals in hand. 🥇 Mr. Kelly and Mr. Cook are so proud of our students who show great potential and qualities to be top athletes. Our pride in our students is evident, as is the students' unyielding commitment and enthusiasm! 👏 What truly stood out was not just their superb tactics and footballing talent but their humble and respectful demeanour towards their opponents. This sportsmanship is what makes us proud to be a part of the St Pius X family! 🌟 We also want to extend our heartfelt gratitude to Great Leighs Primary School f

The Wednesday Word - 02.10.24

- October 02, 2024

Please find this week's Wednesday word here:

Teeth brushing superstars in Reception!

As part of our 'All about me' learning we have been thinking about making healthy choices. We came up with a range of things we need to do to look after ourselves including: - Exercising (Elysia) - Eating fruits and vegetables (Noah) - Sleeping at night (Logan) - Having a wash and brushing our hair (Coby) -Brushing our teeth (Tala) -Wearing warm clothes if it is cold (Urane) Making healthy choices when looking after our teeth is on our Early Years Curriculum. We spent some time thinking about why this is so important. The children could already tell me that they need to brush their teeth twice a day, in the morning and at night. We then spent some time thinking about the recommended time of 2 minutes brushing. We set a timer and realised that this felt like quite a long time! We then all brushed our teeth with the timer. This is what some of the children said afterwards: 'Two minutes was actually a really long time. I will try 3 minutes next time.' - Thea '

Reading Stay and Learn

We were delighted to welcome parents into school today for our Reading Stay and Learn. It was a joy to see families sharing stories together and to hear so many conversations about books going on in school. We hope you enjoyed this opportunity to come into school and to help us celebrate our love of reading here at St Pius X! We hope to see you at our next 'Stay and Learn' event soon.

Cake sale for the Netball team

Go Go Play Rangers!