St Pius X Catholic Primary School

 On Wednesday, Reception class took a walk down to Blessed Sacrament to see our learning in real life. We have been learning about the features within a church and were kindly welcomed by Father Paul and Clare into the church for a look around all the features. The children spotted the pews, altar and cross and found statues of Mary and Joseph.  'Joseph is holding the tools because he did building'- Grace Back at school, the children had the opportunity to 'fix' the church, by placing all the special features in the correct places, as well as labelling key features.  The children had a great time and loved being able to see their learning in person. A big thank you to the parents who were able to support us on the walk, as this would not have been possible without extra adults. 

  The Essex SEND Local Offer Roadshows for parents/carers are just a few weeks away.  Please see below where they are taking place this term.     Date/time Venue South Essex SEND Local Offer Roadshow  – Monday 15 June – 9.30-12.30pm The Mill Arts and Events centre, Mill Hall, Bellingham Lane, Rayleigh, SS6 7ED Mid Essex SEND Local Offer Roadshow  – Wednesday 17 June – 9.30-12.30pm Silver End Village Hall, 3 Broadway, Silver End, Witham, CM8 3RQ North East Essex SEND Local Offer Roadshow  – Monday 22 June – 9.30-12.30pm Venture Centre,  2000 Bromley Rd, Lawford, Manningtree, C011 2JE West Essex SEND Local Offer Roadshow  -  Wednesday 1 July – 9.30-12.30pm Foakes Hall, 47 Stortford Road, Dunmow, CM6 1DG   The roadshows are all drop-in events and children do not need to have any sort of diagnosis for parents/carers to attend.

This week, our amazing Year 6 pupils showed incredible determination, resilience and positivity during their SATs. We are so proud of the hard work and effort they have put in throughout the year, and especially during this important week. Their focus, perseverance and attitude have been truly inspiring. To celebrate all of their hard work, we spent the afternoon enjoying some well-deserved activities together. The children took part in football games, worked creatively to build a LEGO diorama inspired by The Nowhere Emporium , and enjoyed a delicious ice cream kindly provided by the St Vincent de Paul Society (SVP). It was wonderful to see everyone relaxing, smiling and celebrating their achievements together after such a busy week. Well done, Year 6 — you have all been fantastic!

  🎨 Year 1 Art — Exploring Pastel Techniques to Help Our Earth! This week in Year 1, the children became real artists as they explored a range of exciting pastel techniques . We began by looking closely at how artists use colour and texture to bring pictures to life. The children experimented with: Blending – gently smudging colours together to make soft skies and smooth backgrounds Pointillism – using tiny dots to build up colour and texture Small strokes – perfect for fur, feathers and grassy areas Long strokes – great for waves, trees and bold shapes Layering – adding colours on top of each other to make richer tones Drawing and outlining – keeping shapes clear and confident The classroom was full of colour as the children practised each technique on scrap paper, discovering how different marks can change the mood and feeling of a picture. After exploring these skills, the children applied them to their own “Save Our Earth” and “Protect Our Wildlife” artwork. Using the ...

On Friday 8 th  May the children celebrated Sir David Attenborough's 100 th  birthday! As one of our role models for our school value of service, we marked this occasion by wearing something green to school.  It was lovely to see so many children and staff take part. Eden Oasis led workshops for each year group and showed the children a variety of animals, teaching them some interesting facts about their habitats. Animals included a huge snake, a tiny armadillo and a tortoise! This was definitely the highlight of the day, as lots of excitement could be heard from the Hall! Each class also completed their own wildlife themed activity, from drawing portraits of Sir David to paint dye butterflies, scavenger hunts, habitat art and fact files. Year 6 are designing their own wildlife website which is fantastic! Even the music during lunchtimes 'Fun Friday' on the playground were all animal themed! Overall it was a great day and I hope that some children have been inspired by Si...

🎵Today Year 2 had a chance to use the glockenspiels to play along to a familiar piece of music - 'Count on me' by Bruno Mars. They learnt about the musical notes A-G and how the notes repeat. Then they took turns to practice playing the scale, and then the specific notes that would play along with the music (which were C-E-G-B-E-G).  They were quite accurate and kept the beat well, so it made a rather lovely sound when they played together!

Year 5 enjoyed celebrating David Attenborough on Friday - our school representative for the value of 'Service'.  Mrs Wiseman had planned a fun filled day for the whole school involving an animal workshop which they loved!  Along side this, each class completed their own pieces of work to commemorate his 100th birthday. Year 5 chose to complete some pencil sketches using shading to complete a half portrait.  The results were absolutely outstanding! The children took time to think carefully about the proportions of the face, to blend carefully and to choose different stengths of pencil to create their desired effect. They worked meticulously on the details and I am sure you will agree the results were phenomenal!  'You need to really concentrate to shade in the right places.' - Nicola  'Getting the symetry was hard, but, after you have an outline you can shade inside.' - Emil Nicola Emil Jashryl  Nathan Elsa  Janae  Harry  I will be posting som...

 This week in RE, we have continued learning the story of Pentecost. The children worked together to act out the story starting from when Jesus died on Good Friday.  We waved our arms above our heads to represent the wind, twinkly fingers to represent the fire and then practiced speaking in different languages.  The children then went around to each other to share the news of Jesus and his miracles.  'This is the Holy Spirit'- Nina  'It's a miracle'- Ethan  'Jesus is the God of life'- Valentina 'It was a miracle, he resurrected and then ascended'- Elijah 

  🌿 Celebrating David Attenborough in Year 1 (Marking his 100th Birthday!) Over the past two weeks, Year 1 have been completely immersed in the wonderful world of Sir David Attenborough as part of our English learning. Using Little People, Big Dreams: David Attenborough as our focus text, the children have explored his life, his love of nature, and the incredible work he has done to protect our planet. It has been a joy watching the children learn about someone who has inspired millions of people — young and old — to care for the natural world. 🌍 Learning All About David Attenborough Through pictures, discussions, and simple research, the children have discovered: Who David Attenborough is Why he is such an important figure How he has helped us understand animals and their habitats Why looking after our planet matters They have been practising their reading, writing, and speaking skills by creating fact files, writing sentences, and sharing what they have learned with their fri...

 Today we replicated the process of digestion. First we put food in the mouth (food into a zip lock bag), we broke it into pieces like our teeth break down food we eat. Then it was on to the stomach. The food we broken down by acid (water) and mushed up. It then went into the intestines (the tights). Nutrients and water was absorbed out of the intestines (through the tights and onto a paper towel). Then the end. What was left came out...the other side. 

In science, we have been learning all about materials and changes in  materials.  We have explored making a solution using salt and water and then attemptong to reverse this process using evaporation.  This week, we moved on to exploring irreversible changes. The children explored the different ways materials make irreversible changes for example: Mixing, heating, burning.  We took this opportunity to complete some cooking in class and explored how ingredients for pancakes changes when mixed and then heated.  We began by looking at all the ingredients in their original form - flour, milk and eggs. We then mixed them together and discovered we had already witnessed an irreversible change - we would not be able to separate the mixture now! Some of the class thought of our previous lesson on evaporation and whether this would work with our mixture. This was a key learning moment for us as we discovered that mixing doesn't ALWAYS result in an irreversible change!...

Year 2 have been enjoying reading all about Babe's adventures in our new class book - The Sheep Pig by Dick King-Smith.  They have completed lots of amazing, descriptive writing whilst trying to include specific punctuation (apostrophes for contractions and possession, commas in lists) and exciting vocabulary. After discussing how different characters felt in the book ‘The Sheep-Pig,’ they chose a character (Babe, Fly or Mrs Hoggett)  and gave Farmer Hogget advice about his dilemma… Should Farmer Hoggett let Babe copy Fly and be a sheep-pig? We role-played giving Farmer Hoggett advice so that he could  make a decision as he walked through the ‘conscience alley.’ This was a great opportunity for the children to proudly articulate their ideas as well as listen to their peers. By getting into role, children also had a chance to step into that character and consider what they might think and why! It meant they really had to think about the story and what we ...

🌏 COMPETITION 🌏  Wow - we certainly have some creative pupils here at St Pius! We wanted to celebrate Earth Day , thinking about why our world is precious and how we can be responsible citizens by looking after our environment.  We have been overwhelmed with entries and the quality, effort and important messages that have been included is just amazing. Thank you to everyone who participated in the competition.  It has been incredibly difficult to choose a winner from KS1 and KS2! Every entry has been awarded 20 house points and all posters are proudly displayed around the school. KS1 Winner - Joelle!   Her 3D Earth was decorated with beautiful watercolours and some reminders on how to look after the Earth! KS2 Winner - Austin!   His 3D save the earth poster had lots of important messages!  

  Year 1 R.E – Learning Focus 3: The Holy Spirit Helps Us Change This week in Year 1, we explored a very special question in our R.E. lessons: Why do Christians believe the Holy Spirit can help people change, like the apostles did? Across two thoughtful and creative sessions, the children learned about Jesus’ promise to His friends and how Catholics believe the Holy Spirit continues to guide, strengthen, and inspire people today. The week ended with a joyful celebration as the children made their own “God is Here” badges to remind them that God is always close. ✨ Lesson 1 – The Promise of the Holy Spirit We began with a fun retrieval game, “What am I?” , using props and images from earlier stories such as Palm Sunday, the Last Supper, and the Resurrection. This helped the children reconnect with the events leading up to Jesus’ final promise. 📖 Scripture Focus – Acts 1:1–5 We shared a child‑friendly version of the moment when Jesus told the apostles to wait in Jerusalem for the Ho...

 It's been so much fun exploring the forest school area as part of our learning!  The children are loving all of the activities provided by our forest school leaders: Karen and Caroline.  There has been lots of bug hunting, mud kitchen cooking and tree climbing. The children love being outdoors and the lovely weather we've been having has helped massively.  ‘My favourite part was everything!’ Clare ‘ I liked playing with my friends and climbing trees with Archie and Jeevan’ Da’Jean ‘I liked looking for bugs’ Jesse-Joy 'I've been cooking dinner for all my friends'- Kiana