St Pius X Catholic Primary School

Dear Parents/Carers We hope you enjoyed the Nativity Concerts this term.   It’s always such a great opportunity for pupils to excel in singing and drama which are crucial to making the curriculum broad and balanced.   Thank you to all the children for entertaining us and reminding us of the greatest story ever told, with their fantastic performances.   We loved the singing and noted that some parents even joined us twice for the Nativity Play.   It’s so lovely to have our parents back in school so thank you for coming along! I would like to thank the staff for all their hard work and parents for their support with helping the children learn their words, getting their costumes ready as well as attending the performances.   The staff and children are all ready for a well-deserved break and so I wish everyone an enjoyable and restful Christmas.   I look forward to seeing you all in 2023! Warmest wishes and a merry Christmas.   Mrs Derbyshire  

To conclude our IPC topic (Scavengers and Settlers), Year 4 worked in groups to present a news report explaining the discovery of the Neolithic site Skara Brae in the Orkney Islands. The children learnt about the discovery; it is an important primary source of historical significance. They then worked together to present a news report, role-playing journalists, witnesses, historians and archaeologists.  This was also a good opportunity to work on teamwork and speaking and listening skills - sharing ideas, delegating roles and using performance techniques. 

 Well done to those children who have made it to 100 reads at home this year!  We have had 4 children across the school who have already read 100 times at home and we are so proud of them. This is no easy feat as it means reading every night after school and some at weekends too - they have shown real dedication and commitment to their learning and we think they are superstars!  Well done to:  Nina (Reception) Cassius (Reception) Nyara (Year 4) Jason (Year 6)  We enjoyed a couple of chapters of a book together as we drank some delicious hot chocolate with marshmallows! What a treat!  Look out for their photos on our reading hall of fame in the hall! I wonder if you can make it to 100 reads next term?!

  For our science lesson in year 2, we were finding out all about air resistance. To investigate how air particles push against an object, we made our own paper helicopters. We had lots of fun throwing them in the air and watching them spin! Wow, I'm going to make another one at home! Vinnie I bet you'd feel a lot of air resistance on a bike Tyler

This term Year 3 have been learning all about stop-frame animations. Stop-frame animations are made by taking a series of pictures (frames) that come together to tell a story. We identified 4 main things that needed to happen for a good-quality stop-frame animation: 1. Keeping the camera in the same place. 2. Keeping the background in the same place. 3. Small changes to make the animation smooth. 4. No random things in the image, such as hands. We made our animations using the Stop Motion App, which had lots of cool features to help us. This included onion-skinning which is where a shadow of the previous image is left on the screen to help with taking the next image. We worked in groups and followed the plan, do, check, and act cycle to improve after every take. In our final takes, we produce some really good quality animations. Here's one of them:

  In Year 5 we have spent the past week focusing on peer and friendship issues that can occur both in and out of school environments. In this lesson we looked at peer pressure scenarios following our Catholic approved PSHE scheme of work.  The first step to coping with pressure is to identify the many guises it can take. In this session, the students learned the different types of spoken and unspoken pressure that they might experience, particularly from their peers. Then, in small groups, the students rehearsed and presented role-play scenarios, so that the students can identify different ways in which people can experience pressure and strategies to resist it. This lesson was closely tied in with our kindness value, at the end of the lesson we recited a prayer by Mother Teresa.  "We really enjoyed our PSHE lessons, I really enjoy being able to work in groups!" Jion

  Our Stars this week 15.12.2022 Heavenly, Harry, Cassius,  Ariana, Sanjay  and Roseanna

 Key Stage One enjoyed a delicious Christmas lunch on Wednesday.  We were very grateful to the kitchen staff for their acts of service in making this for us. The children loved their meal, their crackers and the Christmas music! ‘ Christmas dinner was good. I loved the pigs in blankets.’ - Alfie Year 2 Teachers joined in with the children to share a meal together and enjoy the festivities. They spent time talking with their pupils about Christmas traditions and their yummy food! ‘I loved Christmas dinner, the chicken was so nice. ’ - Lexi Year 1  ‘ Christmas dinner was delicious. I loved the pigs in blankets. ’ - Gabriel Year 1   ‘ I liked sitting next to Mr Cook for my dinner. ’- Janelle Year 2 We had a lovely time! 

After careful consideration during the designing process, where the children thought about their theme, colours and materials, they have now completed their Mayan-inspired masks. They look absolutely incredible! "I designed my mask to be a combination of a party mask and a death mask. On one side, there are brighter colours and smoother lines to represent a celebration. On the other side, I made it darker and  the lines more angular to make it have a slighter darker theme."  Lilyanne "I made a combination of a festival mask and a battle mask. The mouth is scary and the eyes are dull, which will scare off the enemy and make them back away. However, the yellow gives the mask a sense of hope and the feeling of a holiday." Ivan "I used different colours to represent a party. I also used leaves for eyebrows to represent nature because that is something I love." Jessica Outstanding work, Year 6! 

Year 6 had a wonderful Christmas-filled lunch today: Christmas tunes were playing; crackers were pulled and - most importantly - the children enjoyed a wonderful dinner with all the trimmings!  It was brilliant to see them all in their festive gear - dressing up last Thursday wasn't enough! There was a real sense of community and Christmas cheer in the air and it was wonderful to see the children demonstrating reciprocity towards each other and clearly embodying our school values of peace and kindness.  In line with Malala Yousafzai's advice, we educated our hearts and souls at lunch today and in the words of Mother Teresa, the children were the living expression of God's kindness: kindness in their faces, kindness in their eyes and kindness in their smile. What an amazing day!

In Year 3 our Maths topic has been focussing on multiplication and division. We've worked really hard on our 4 and 8 times tables - we're pros at them now! Today we brought all our learning together and investigated the relationship between the 2, 4, and 8 times tables. Our findings were very interesting... First, we identified all the multiples of 2, 4, and 8 on a 100 square. We noticed that all the multiples of 8 were also multiples of 2 and 4, but what could this mean?  It needed to be investigated further! Our findings were: 3 x 2 = 6 To find 2 times the number you double it 3 x 4 = 12 is the same as 3 x 2 x 2 = 12 To find 4 times the number you double it and double it again 3 x 8 = 24 is the same as 3 x 2 x 2 x 2 = 24 To find 8 times the number you double it, double it, and double it again For example:   7 x 2 7 x 4 7 x 8   Double it Double it again Double it again 7 14

During Christmas, the season of Advent, the children have been asked to prepare themselves by thinking about what they need to work on to improve themselves so that they are ready for Christmas day and when Jesus comes again.  The children were reminded of the different St Pius X values that they could focus on during Advent:   Integrity, Kindness, Forgiveness, Service, Fairness, Peace.

Reception had so much fun in the snow!  The children thought about how to stay safe in the snow and we all dressed up in our warm things before heading outside.  The children worked together to build this fantastic snow man! 'I wonder how long the snowman will stay here for?' Alex ' I love the snow so much, I have made a snow castle with my bucket and spade.' - Norah We had a brilliant morning and the children were wonderfully behaved!  Well done Reception!   

The children have had such a fun day in school today, especially at break time when they had the chance to enjoy our wintery weather and play in the snow! From impressive snowmen to competitive snowball fights, the children definitely made the most of their time outside!  "I like how soft the snow was; it was really fun to have a snowball fight!" Seb, Year 6 "I can't believe that it snowed that much - it was really fun when we threw snowballs at each other." Amelia T, Year 6 What a fun day! 

  In year 2 we have been learning all about different shapes! Here's Harry and Mia, drawing a pentagon and counting it's vertices and sides. It may be winter but that didn't stop us from having some fun outside in maths!! 'I've really been enjoying learning about 2D and 3D shapes - Harry

The children across St Pius X had a wonderful day today in their annual Sponsored Santa Stroll. They displayed determination and resilience to complete as many laps of the course as possible! It was wonderful to see the children demonstrating one of our six values at St Pius, service, by working hard to raise money for some wonderful resources for our school. A big thank you to Mrs Wallace for organising the event and to all the parents and carers who came to support!  "Even though it was quite tiring, I loved trying to do as many laps as possible!" Ayden, Year 6 "The one word I would use to describe this afternoon is tiring! It was absolutely worth it though to raise money for the school (and for the treat and juice at the end)."  Lilyanne, Year 6 Well done to all the children across the school!

  Whole School Advent Mass 6th December 2022

  Congratulations to our Stars of the Week! Jason, Lisa, Brian, Poppy, Joshua, Aiden, Mia-Rose

The children in Reception enjoy their ‘choosing’ time where they can play with our wide variety of toys and activities. ‘Come on, let’s go down the slide together.’ - Maria  ‘They are so tired they are going to bed.’ - Aisling  The girls are developing story language and role playing back and forth with each other.  The boys worked collaboratively to help 'fix' the school. They used our tools to fix the wall together using their imagination, problem solving skills and team work.  ' The wall is broken so we are all fixing it with these tools.' Jayan The girls enjoyed applying our learning around celebrations to their own imaginative play. They decided they needed to decorate the role play area ready for a party. They began organising each other.  'There is going to be a party here.' - Nella  ' We need some decorations.' - Nina 'Ok, and I will make the cake.' - Skylah  Lainey enjoyed playing with our numicon boards and shapes. Through this play

Year 6 have been working hard this week to develop their historical enquiry skills. They have been looking at sources of evidence from the Maya Civilisation to deduce information about their way of life.  The children were able to make predictions and draw conclusions about the Maya ballgame "Pok-ta-Pok". It was brilliant to see the children asking questions and justifying any ideas they had. It was also great to see their understanding that no single source of evidence can give a full answer to questions about the past. After the children had analysed the sources of evidence and drawn their own conclusions about the game, the rules were introduced to them. They were then able to compare "Pok-ta-Pok" to a modern day game of their choice.  "I thought the game was related to basketball as looking at the pictures of the Maya ruins, I noticed that there were hoops on the wall. However, it was probably a bit more dangerous than basketball because they were wearing h

The children were very fortunate on Thursday to be visited by the wonderful children's author, C.S. Clifford . As well as sharing his stories with the children, he led engaging workshops in the classroom to support children with the editing process in writing.  Years 4, 5 and 6 were inspired to be authors themselves and write creatively; it was wonderful to see the children's imaginations ignited throughout the day.  Here is what some of our pupils thought of the workshop:  "Steve  was very funny and it was nice to write about whatever we wanted." - Brooke, Year 6 "The stories he shared were really funny!" - Daniel, Year 5 "I liked when Steve came to our class and when we played the game about making mermaid names and nicknames." - Amelia T, Year 6 "I liked when we edited our work; it was fun to choose new words to replace the sticky words. " - Ira, Year 6 We are so impressed with the writing that the children produced - we definitely

Reception, along with the rest of the school, really enjoyed their visit from author Steve Clifford.  He told them a story called ‘the hole’. He didn’t read from a story book, but he had the class griped by his story telling.  He used expressive language, voices and noises. The children joined in with  actions and noises for the animals too. The class sat so nicely and they didn’t take their eyes off of him. This is a brilliant example of just how exciting stories can be. We are sure the children have spoken about this visit at home.  Steve Clifford has written many story books for children of all ages. You can see some more of his books here:  https://www.csclifford.co.uk/