St Pius X Catholic Primary School

 Opening our magic boxes, the Year 3s found a treasure trove of delights inside. Over this week, we have been writing free-verse poems inspired by 'The Magic Box'. There were so many great poems. Today was the chance to look at performance techniques and put them into practice.  "The change in intonation made it much more emotional." -Kachi "I love the actions and how they matched the words." -Liah

 Pentecost 28th May 2023 In Whole School Assembly, this morning, the children heard the Gospel story about Pentecost and how Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to the disciples as he promised he would.  They were able to speak languages that they were never able to before. We talked about how there is one God, experienced as three persons, The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit.  The children were very good at understanding this. At lunch time, Gabriel in Year 1, was delighted that he found a Clover leaf on the field.  He was keen to find Mrs Derbyshire to tell her, " It has one stem but three parts, The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit.  Just like we heard in the assembly, this morning!" The Holy Spirit is always with us and we can turn to the Holy Spirit for strength, at any time. Wishing all the children, staff and parents, a happy and restful half-term. Mrs Derbyshire

 Year 6 had a brilliant day yesterday learning all about how Chelmsford was affected during World War 2 at Chelmsford Museum. The children were able to explore genuine artefacts from Chelmsford during the war and learnt all about why Chelmsford was targeted by the Germans in their bombing attacks.  The children explored the story of a little boy called Bernard, whose father worked at the Hoffmann ball bearing factory during the war. The factory was bombed in 1942 exactly at the time Bernard and his mother were trying to get to the air raid shelter. Unfortunately, Bernard's mother died, but she was able to save Bernard's life in an act of heroism. "I didn't expect Chelmsford to have been bombed so much during the war. It was really sad learning about Bernard's story, but so heroic of his mother to have saved him."  Jason "It was quite terrifying seeing the model that the Germans had made of Chelmsford. Everything was very accurate and it definitely demonst...

We are so proud of the following children for making their 100 reads this term. This is a fantastic achievement and they should be congratulated for their resilience and determination to reach this goal.  Rec – Olivia Year 1 – Amelie Year 2 – Vinnie Year 3 – Joseph, Raveena, Noel, Adesire Year 4 – Willow Year 5 – Anna, Kate, Isha, Julia Year 6 – Darcie, Ava, Elizabeth We are delighted to say that the following children have been awarded their 200 reads certificate. This commitment to their learning is fantastic!  Reception - William Year 1 - Harley Year 5 - Zaviera Year 6 - Lilyanne All of these children celebrated with an ice-lolly today. A well deserved treat!  Well done readers! 

  Today Year 4 participated with the rest of our school in the Marian Procession. We also celebrated all of the children in our class who have recently experienced their First Holy Communion. The children sang beautifully this morning during the procession. Well done Year 4! 'It was wonderful. The children who had their Holy Communion were allowed to wear their special clothes. Year 3 were also given their bibles.'           Lilly 'Today, people who made their Holy Communion were allowed to wear their smart clothes. I enjoyed the songs and watching Year 3 receive their bibles.'       Eneojo 'I liked watching all the children in their beautiful clothes and the part where Mary was crowned'.    Angelin

 We have been exploring emergency vehicles as part of our ‘Transport and Journeys’ topic. We have loved looking into police cars, ambulances and fire engines and the important role they and their drivers play in our community.  We decided we wanted to thank these fantastic members of our local area and have written them some brilliant letters. Through these letters the children are demonstrating one of our school values of kindness.  The children had to use all their writing knowledge including their phonics sounds, use of capital letters, full stops and trying to write on the line.  We are so proud of what they have achieved and the children showed great resilience when writing.  We are sure that they will be gratefully received as we have posted them to the local emergency stations this afternoon! 

  Year 4 have been learning lots of facts about the human body this half term including, how our ears work, how our eyes see, the digestive system and also the different bones in our skeletons. The children thoroughly enjoyed our outdoor learning task yesterday afternoon where they had to label as many body parts and bone names as they could. The children amazed me with their fantastic recall of some really tricky scientific words such as phalanges (fingers and toe bones), scapula (shoulder blade), clavicle (collar bone), mandible (jaw), cranium (skull) and patella (knee cap)!  The children demonstrated fantastic team work within their groups; taking on specific roles and communicating clearly with each other to share their ideas.  Brilliant work Year 4 - very well done! ☺ ' I enjoyed learning about different parts of our bodies'    Estera 'In Science, we went outside and used chalk to draw around a partner's body. We then labelled all the different body parts t...

  Year 4 have been very busy the last few weeks in their Forest School sessions! From learning how to make fires, to cutting wood and roasting marshmallows...the children have been busy exploring the great outdoors and learning lots of new skills! Some of the skills were much harder to learn this week and required the children to demonstrate many of our school values including reciprocity, perseverance, patience, resourcefulness and resilience. Well done Year 4! I loved the marshmallow activity; I burnt it perfectly on the fire. It was amazing!   Lilly I loved the tasty, mouth-watering marshmallows and the delicious popcorn! I learnt so much, such as how to cook popcorn!    Nyara

 Year 4 had lots of fun in Maths today learning about fractions! The children were using multilink to represent numerous fraction addition problems and sharing their answers as both mixed and improper fractions!  It was lovely to see the children's confidence growing within this topic this morning and showing great reciprocity skills whilst working in their groups to solve each problem. They were using lots of mathematical vocabulary to help each other, such as denominator, numerator and equivalent! Great work Year 4! ☺ 'I enjoyed doing the multilink activity as it was easy and really simple to understand. It was the best kind of Maths!'      Willow 'Today in Maths we were using multilink. We had to use the cubes to make different fractions. Everyone enjoyed this lesson!     Eneojo

To find out how we use our arms to help us run, we first tried running with our hands in the air. Then we tried having them out to the side and also in front of us. None of these worked very well. We then practised with our arms bent, elbows in and moving our arms as we ran. Much better!

Year 6 had such a fun day out today as they visited Pizza Express and Central Park.  The children firstly learnt all about the origins of pizza and the different ingredients used. Then, they started to make their own margherita pizzas. First, they had to spread on the passata sauce, then they added mozzarella cheese and finally they sprinkled on some oregano for some added flavour.  It was then time for them to bake in the oven - they only took 3 minutes each to cook, so it didn't take long at all! "It was very fun learning about the history of pizza and where all the ingredients come from. It was even more fun eating it!" Lilyanne After our great experience at Pizza Express, we walked to Central Park, enjoyed our delicious pizzas and had some fun playing in the park. It was definitely a well-deserved treat for all of the children after last week!                          "It was very adventurous in the park - I ...

Yesterday, Year 3 were finishing off their plant and growing topic by making flower pots from clay. They used the pinch method to create the shapes and decorated them with their own designs. Some students were adventurous and even explored different shapes for their pots including heart shapes and bunny ears. Later in the week we will complete them by painting.   "I've enjoyed doing something I've never tried before." -Shakira

Reception class welcomed Father Paul into school for their first class mass.  The children really enjoyed the more intimate service and they were able to further their understanding due to the closer proximity to the different parts of the mass.  They showed a great deal of maturity and spiritual reflection. They enjoyed taking part in the service through singing hymns, praying, making the sign of the cross and joining in with the responses from the readings.  We were also delighted that some parents and family members could join us to join in worship together. 

 RESILIENCE... What does this mean? We often talk about having resilience especially when it comes to our school work. Persevering, trying again, overcoming barriers - having a growth mindset and a positive attitude are useful and admirable traits. In PSHE Year 4 thought about how we can have emotional resilience too. We considered how physical and emotional bullying can affect the victim, and what steps we could take to show resilience if we were in a similar situation. This fun short Pixar film - For the birds - opened up thoughtful discussions about how someone might feel if they were being laughed at, or left out.

 Year 4 have been very busy at home! Their half-term project for IPC (Land, Sea and Sky) was to create something to show what they have learnt and enjoyed.  See below for some of the amazing projects. Thanks for sharing Year 4!