St Pius X Catholic Primary School

🌍 In geography we have started to learn about the United Kingdom! We had interesting discussions about if the UK is a country; it is 4 countries 'united.'  Then we thought about the capital cities and their location in each country before exploring the atlases. This was a lot of fun - working together to identify the 4 countries and capital cities and then annotating them on our own maps. Year 2's understanding of the locations relative to each other has improved, and some even started to look at the seas and oceans surrounding us!  🌍

To help our Year 6s prepare for the exciting move to secondary school, we recently hosted a fantastic transition workshop run by the brilliant team at N.O.W.S. Through a mix of fun activities and mindfulness techniques, the pupils focused on boosting their confidence, celebrating their unique core skills, and building the resilience needed for their next big adventure. It was a wonderful opportunity for the children to reflect on their strengths as they get ready to take this giant leap forward. A major focus of the session was emotional well-being, reminding our Year 6s that it is completely okay to feel a mix of nerves and excitement, and that talking about our feelings is a superpower. The N.O.W.S team also taught the pupils practical calming and mindfulness techniques that they can easily use at their new desks whenever they feel overwhelmed. Well done Year 6

This week in Year 5, our RE lesson took us back thousands of years to explore the roots of two major world religions: Judaism and Catholicism . We discovered how one man, Abraham, stands at the very beginning of both faith stories as their spiritual father. To kick things off and understand what Abraham might have felt, we turned the classroom into a trust zone. We paired up for a special guiding game: one partner closed their eyes tightly, while the other had to lead them safely around the room using nothing but clear, spoken instructions. There were plenty of giggles, but it taught us a massive lesson about trust. It helped us mimic the famous story of Lech Lecha (which means "Go forth" or "Leave your land"). In the Bible and the Tanakh, God tells Abraham to leave everything he knows—his home, his family, and his country—and travel to a mysterious new land. Abraham had total, unwavering trust in God's guidance, just like our blindfolded partners trusted thei...

 This week in maths, the children have been learning how to add and subtract 1 digit numbers. We read a story, which introduced the concept of more and less, which the children followed along well with. We followed the maths in the story by using our fingers to count on or take away.  Then throughout the week, the children were introduced to first, then, now boards and used cubes to follow along the story. Finally, we learnt when the addition and subtraction signs looked like and how to write a number sentence. The children worked very hard with their maths this week and enjoyed challenging themselves to form the numbers correctly. 

  🔢 Year 1 Compare Numbers with the Same Number of Tens This week, our Year 1 mathematicians have been building on their understanding of place value to compare numbers within 100. They’ve been exploring how the tens and ones digits work together to make a number — and how we can use this knowledge to decide which numbers are greater , less , or equal . 🧮 Building on Previous Learning Earlier in the year, the children learned to use the words greater than , less than , and equal to , along with the symbols > , < , and = . This week, they’ve taken that learning further by comparing numbers that have the same number of tens but different numbers of ones . For example: 42 and 47 both have 4 tens, but 47 is greater because it has more ones. 35 and 33 both have 3 tens, but 33 is fewer because it has fewer ones. 🗣️ Using Mathematical Language We’ve been practising using the words fewer and less accurately: Fewer is used when talking about objects (e.g., “There are fewer c...

 

 

As part of our PSHE curriculum, we have been thinking about the qualities of a good friend , and when certain actions are appropriate or inappropriate. This includes what we say, how we say it, and how we behave. Year 2 had some great ideas, some of which linked to our learning powers of showing RESPECT and RESILIENCE as well as considering strategies we can use to help us make good decisions.  Matthew 7v 12 reminds us to treat others as we would like to be treated ourselves. This is Jesus's Golden Rule! To conclude and celebrate, we made 'friendship jars,' adding ingredients that would make a good friend, before singing along to our friendship songs - Count on Me and You've Got a Friend in Me (which we have been learning to play on the glockenspiels too!)