St Pius X Catholic Primary School

 Last Friday, the Year 4s went into London for a trip to the Globe Theatre as well as taking in the sites of London (especially the bridges and public transport). We walked down to Chelmsford Station to get the train into London. We then took the underground to Mansion House and walked over Southwark Bridge to the Globe Theatre. Many students were impressed with cries of, "Is that REALLY the Thames!?" When we arrived at the Globe, we were taken on a tour of the theatre with a talk on the history. We were very lucky and when sitting in the stalls, we watched a professional actor being filmed reciting a speech from Richard III.  After our tour, we had our own workshop. Ollie, our guide through Shakespeare, took us through several acting exercises. He gradually built us up through a series of tasks from striking poses to represent different characters, to acting out Macbeth's meeting with the Witches as a group, to playing out Macbeth and Lady Macbeth's confrontation aft...

 

 In Summer Term 1, Year 1 has been participating in forest school! The photos below show a snap-shot of what we have been up to! "I love breathing in the fresh air!" - Skylah "There are so many kinds of bugs I have found!" - Mila A picture of the students learning how to make a fire and roasting some hot cross buns! Making and understanding how shelters work! "The first time I did it, I was really scared. The second time I did it, I felt so confident! I want to practice again!" - Norah Learning about fire safety! "I never knew I could make art using only things I found outside!" - Amelia It was wonderful seeing the students come into school full of energy and excited for their lessons at forest school. Thank you to some parents who volunteered and helped out at forest school, the students and I were very grateful!

We had a special day, where all classes got an archery taster lesson! It was fun to do something different, while using our fine motor skills to compete against others in a range of fun activities. KS1 and KS2 enjoyed some specialized coaching sessions for the day. They learnt how to use a bow and arrow and how to aim at a target. We even saw some bullseyes! Here are year 3 enjoying their session..   Right at the end I hit a bullseye and won the game for my team! It was such a fun lesson Elodie

 In Music in year 3, we have been learning how to play the recorders. Not only have we been learning how to hold and play the recorder properly, we've been reading sheet music and playing songs together as a class. I now feel confident when playing the recorder.. it's really good fun! Oliver I can't wait to learn some new songs and play them as a class Janae

🦋 We have released our butterflies - Daisy, Sonic and Foden. We have enjoyed watching their transformation and finally releasing them into their natural habitat.

This term in PE we have been developing some key athletic skills which we will use on Sports Day later this term.  The children have been practicing throwing with accuracy, jumping skills and running. Our lesson this week focused on a few skills while running: changing direction, changing speeds, staying in a lane and transporting beanbags while running in a relay style. The children enjoyed different stations set up around the field to practice these skills.  It's hard to change direction around the cones and run quickly. - Uriah  'I need to slow down when I am balancing it (quoit) on my head. - David  We can't wait to put our learning to the test on Sports Day! 

UPDATE 20 May 2024 - our 3 chrysalides have emerged and we have 3 lively butterflies! We are planning to release them on Wednesday. UPDATE 13 May 2024 - the 3 surviving caterpillars have now become chrysalides and have been moved into the butterfly habitat. Hopefully the Painted Lady butterflies will emerge in 2 weeks time! UPDATE 8 May 2024  - the caterpillars have grown a lot and are beginning to get comfortable on the lid of the cup as their cocoon starts to develop... 🐛 29 April 2024 - We are currently looking after 5 tiny caterpillars and are awaiting their transformation into butterflies in a few week's time! 🦋   Check back soon for an update!

  🎉🎒🔥 What a fantastic way to celebrate the end of Year 6 KS2 SATs! Our students had a blast toasting marshmallows and enjoying a cozy campfire. All the children did themselves proud this week and worked hard to complete the assessments. Here's to hard work, fun times, and great memories! 🏕️

 

 Today in year 1 we set up different stations to aid in our understanding of recognising equal groups! We paired this with our previous understanding of counting by 2s and 5s. Students used multilink cubes and dough to make and sort equal groups and were able to spot differences between equal and unequal groups. "It's a lot easier for me to find equal groups when I can make them on my own!" Olivia By the end of the maths lesson, all students were much more confident in identifying equal groups and making them on their own!

The focus of our IPC topic is 'Buildings' so we thought we would have a look at the local buildings! After looking at our route on a map we were ready to get our steps in! On the journey we could consider why there are so many different styles of buildings, with different purposes and compare the materials, design and age of them. We applied our geographical and historical knowledge from the classroom to real life! The Cathedral and County Hall were impressive buildings! We were also able to visit The Art Place. This was fantastic because we were given a special tour and shown a huge array of different art work including an exhibition all about hair called 'My hair, my crown!' There were handmade products made by local artists including glass-blown jewellery, paper hedgehogs, dog bow ties, wooden toys and galleries of acrylic paintings. There were even artworks made from eggshells! We highly recommend a visit! Throughout the trip we took the opportunities to practice ou...