St Pius X Catholic Primary School

                        Congratulations to our  Star of the Week children  Norah, Florence, Mia, Emmanuel, Grace & Ivy

 This Autumn half term, Year 5 are learning the rules and skills for netball, today we looked at pivoting on the spot to avoid an opposition player to make a successful pass to a teammate.   "It's really hard to pass to a teammate with someone blocking you as you can't move with the ball, but by pivoting on the spot, you can turn to a different team mate to pass." Amy- Year 5

 Our boys football team took part in the CSSP Chelmsford school football competition in which over thirty schools participated in the event. The boys played some exceptionally difficult teams but through sheer determination, teamwork and resilient nature we managed to secure 11th place out of 30 schools, with two wins, two draws and two losses. Well done boys superb effort, on to the small schools boys league we go!  "The team played really well, we played as a team and encouraged one another to keep pushing, I'm excited to see how we play as the year goes on."- Seni year 5, team captain. 

            Today, Year 6 had their first visit from the Wilderness Foundation UK. As part of a four week programme, the charity will be working with Year 6 to explore a range of environmental and sustainability issues.     For more information click here .

This week we have been thinking about our bodies and how we can stay healthy. As part of this we have been thinking about healthy eating, exercise, washing and having good daily routines with brushing our teeth.  We have read some interesting stories about brushing our teeth and going to the dentist. Today the children brought in their toothbrushes and we all practised brushing our teeth in school. We set a timer for 2 minutes to encourage the children to give their teeth a really good clean.  "Two minutes is a really long time, my teeth are so clean now." - Janae  "My tooth fell out yesterday so I need to keep brushing to keep the new one healthy." - Ivy "You only need a little bit on the brush - like a pea. (re toothpaste)" - David Alongside this, we have also been thinking about the parts of our body and have enjoyed a range of activities such as drawing around each other in chalk and labelling our body parts and creating our skeletons after reading the...

 Today, as part of our English topic (Non-chronological reports) Year 2 developed their reciprocity skills by working together to label a picture of the brain. As 'Brain Experts' with lots of knowledge about how the brain works and how to keep our brains healthy, they were able to complete the captions and take turns to label the picture. This collaboration is vitally important as they continue to learn together. Well done Year 2!

 This week, Year 1 began their new English focus text... The Smeds and the Smoos We discussed how unfair it was that the Smeds and the Smoos did not initially get along or play together based on their differences. We decided that, together, we would create a recipe for a 'Friendship potion' that would help our friends get along and play together nicely! We discussed our school values such as 'kindness' and 'fairness' as key ingredients within our potion.  "Hugs can be an extra ingredient for a good friend" - William "When you fall down, a good friend will help you up again." - Aisling "Sharing is a sign of caring" - Norah  We then went into the outdoor area and began creating our potions. We sprinkled love, added handfuls of care and dolloped in large tablespoons of helpfulness into our pots and pans. Over the next few days, we then began writing our instructions on how to make an effective 'Friendship potion'! We made sure...

  Today, Year 6, received a visit from Essex County Fire and Rescue Service (ECFRSS).  ECFRSS delivered an informative and engaging presentation to Year 6 on Cyber Safety. The aims for this session was to focus on the hidden dangers of social media, online gaming, online predators, cyberbullying, and identity theft. Our objectives are for each young person to:   1. Understand the risks of being online. 2. Understand what cyberbullying is and the impact and consequences of online bullying. 3. Understand what an online scam is and how to keep information safe. 4. Understand how to stay safe online when using social media, games, and websites.   Thank you to ECFRSS.  

  In Year 4 we were exploring the Zones of Regulation and how our emotions can affect how we learn. We looked at how different situations would make us feel and which zone that would put us in. We then thought about tools we can use to regulate ourselves and shift back to the green zone.  In groups, the class started to make posters explaining the zones and with helpful tips to help regulate ourselves. 

                                                        Congratulations to our  Star of the Week children  Isha, Milan, Dominic, Emil and Amelia-Grace

A great way for children to learn about E Safety is by playing a game called Interland. The game has been developed by Google and is a fun and informative way for children to learn about E Safety. Interland

  Reading - Stay and Learn          “There are perhaps no days of our childhood we lived so fully as those we spent with a favourite book.” –Marcel Proust We are delighted to invite parents, carers, grandparents and family members into school on Thursday 5th October at 2:45-3:15pm to read with your child or children.  The school will be stopping our usual curriculum activities at this time to spend half an hour reading for pleasure.  Bring along your favourite childhood book or choose from our collection of wonderful stories.  You can move around the classes to read with siblings if you have more than one child in school. We hope to see you there!

Today was National Fitness day! We enjoyed different forms of exercise during our outdoor learning time.  The children have been using the bikes in the playground and building their strength by pulling others along behind them.  We have enjoyed developing our core strength and balance while climbing the pirate ship. The children have also been encouraged to move around so they can feel their heart beating. Lots of children enjoyed jumping and running and testing their heart beats.  'I love to be outside, I like the bikes.' - Benjamin We love our outdoor learning time and experience physical exercise daily, this also helps us get ready for our indoor learning too! 

 Year 2 have been working hard to represent the value of digits using a variety of equipment. There has been lots of discussion about how to write and draw numbers in different ways to explain our understanding of 2-digit numbers. Alister said: 'I don't need to count every single cube because I know that this means 10, so I can count in tens.' Florence said: 'I know that 36 is made from 3 tens and 6 ones.' Phoebe said: 'The difference between a place value chart and a part-whole model is that the place value chart tells you where to put the tens and ones, but a part-whole model doesn't!' Kasper said: 'I know that 1000 is made up of 500 and 500.'

 As our entry point to our new IPC topic 'Making Waves', year 3 went outside and made a load of noise! We identified what happens when you stand further away from instruments when they are making a sound. We made predictions on how we think sound travels, a question that we hope to answer over the coming weeks as part of our learning!

We 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. In Years 3 to 6, 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

  Congratulations to our  Star of the Week children  Greeshma, Seni, Oakey,  James, Sable and Harry

During our reading lesson today, we continued to read our book new Floodland. Today we explored two characters - Zoe and Molly. We discussed the relationship between the two characters, their intentions and we predicted how their relationship might develop in the book. At the end of the lesson, we acted out a scene from the book working on our expression and acting skills.

  Year 1 had a fantastic time exploring during the first lesson of our new IPC topic 'Brainwave'! We learnt about our brains and discussed what our brains help us to do. We then explored our different senses that the brain controls (sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste). The children all showed great  Resourcefulness  as they pretended being scientists around our outdoor learning area by using different equipment such as magnets, magnifying glasses, measuring cylinders, pipettes and syringes! We explored using our different senses by having a smelling challenge of different foods in envelopes to see if we could guess what was inside! We used our ears to listen carefully in our outdoor learning area and record what sounds we could hear and what things could be making these sounds. We explored touch and identified the value of sight by trying to guess different items hidden in a bag without looking at them. The children had a fantastic afternoon and shared some excellent ...

 We are so proud of our new Reception children who have started school this week.  They have shown great Resilience and Resourcefulness as they have chosen items to play with and managed all the emotions that come with starting school.  The children have been practicing recognising their name on their trays and pegs, lining up together and sitting on their own spaces on the carpet. Over the next few days we will be practising these skills more and working hard to develop our listening skills.  We have enjoyed a range of storytimes and singing sessions and the children are showing how ready they are for school. We are proud of their kindness towards one another and know that this will only continue to grow as the year goes on.  A great start - well done Reception! 

 Year 2 have been discussing genres of writing in preparation for starting a new English topic. After recalling prior learning about different types of books and writing, we agreed on a definition for 'Fiction' and 'Non-Fiction.' Then in groups their task was to share, discuss and group books into 'fiction' and 'non-fiction.' This involved reciprocity and reflectiveness as well as working collaboratively and taking turns. It was great to hear what Year 2 have already learnt - they could remember that 'fiction' meant a story or something that wasn't real whereas 'non-fiction' meant something that was true or factual. To finish, we sorted the books as a class: Henry said 'If we don't know which one it goes in, we could put it in the middle!' Olive said 'If it's fiction it means a story and if it's non-fiction it means it's true.' Why not see which fiction and non-fiction books you have at home?  Non-fict...

  Year 6    This week we started our IPC Brainwave topic. We have been learning about the different parts of the brain and considering how we can use the 4 R's to become better learners. Today we learnt about the importance of getting good quality sleep, the importance of healthy eating and tried different ways to relax by drawing pictures inspired by nature, taking part in a yoga session and spending time in the library.    Great start to the new term!

  On Wednesday 6th September, we celebrated the Feast Day of Pope Pius X with a whole school mass at St Pius X. It was a lovely way to start our new academic school year and we would like to thank Father Paul and parents who came to share this special occasion with us.