St Pius X Catholic Primary School

 Today for our Religious Education lesson, students learned how spending time with the parish family can be an act of love and service. To begin the lesson, students discussed their own experiences attending Mass, either at a church, or here at school. We discussed how at the end of Mass, the priest gives everyone God's blessing and tells them to "Go in Peace" and we all say "Thanks be to God".  "I go to Sunday School after Mass with Catherine and Hannah. They teach us stories from the bible and how we can be kind like God." - Benjamin "I go to Sunday School after Mass. We do crafts and talk about stories from the Bible. Then, my parents come to get me and we all go for refreshments in a room. My parents talk to people there from the parish family" - Leona Then, students looked at a picture of people gathering after Mass and labeled it using speech bubbles, predicting what the people might be talking about. We spoke about how the people wou...

 This week, we have been to the Natural History Museum! The children were wonderful ambassadors for our school as we set out on our journey. They enjoyed the train and the tube rides and behaved wonderfully!  We were in awe of the building alone, when we first arrived! We were very busy while we were there but managed to squeeze in a visit to the 'From the Beginning' exhibition. Here the children could explore the planets, the moon and the sun from our solar system. The interactive exhibits helped the children to learn some key facts about them!  'We learned that Pluto might not be a planet, it is now thought it is a small comet.' - Ivy  'The average temperature of the Sun's surface is 5000 degrees celsius.' - Noel  'The average temperature on Saturn is -289 degrees celsius.' - Kachi  We were incredibly lucky to also have a workshop booked! The workshop centered around our IPC topic of 'Mission to Mars'. The children became engineers, designe...

Today in Reception we have been very lucky to have some visitors to talk about our teeth and how to keep them healthy. Dental nurses Ella and Clarissa spoke to the class. We learned that we need our teeth to eat, talk and smile and we have 20 teeth 🦷 The main message is that we should be brushing our teeth twice a day for 2 minutes and also sweet treats are for after your meals and not in between them. They explained the process at the dentist and what the dentist and dental nurses do. There’s no need to be afraid, they are very friendly! The class then had a chance to brush the big teeth and everyone got a sticker! The children enjoyed getting involved, and answering the questions. Ella and Clarissa will be returning next Monday to have a look at the children’s teeth (with parents permission) and will visit the school a number of occasions to teach more to the children and check on their dental health. This forms part of the children PSHE learning about their health and looking after...

 Year One students took place in a range of activities this week for our I.P.C unit 'Treasure Island'!  First, students learned that pirates in the Caribbean used to steal gold and silver coins from other ships on their way from South America to Spain. Students designed their own pirate coins using air dry clay, beads, buttons and paint. "I'm making a pattern on my pirate coin with the beads!" - Nancy "My pirate coin is from London!" - Eva "My pirate coin was stolen by another pirate!" - Arsha "You have to make sure the clay is thick enough, or your coin will break!" - Abel "Pirates would steal gold and silver coins. I made a gold coin!" - Ava-Grace For Design and Technology, students designed compasses. Students learned that pirates used compasses to navigate the seas on their ships. We learned about cardinal directions and intermediate directions. Then, students made their own compasses using cardboard, paper, and butterfl...

Year 4 and Year 6 artwork is now proudly displayed at John Lewis (Chelmsford) as part of their Community Art Wall. The children created a stunning piece inspired by the Black History Month artist Frank Bowling. This incredible art will remain on display until the end of February. One student in the class even received special recognition for their contribution!

 This week in our Religious Education unit 'Special People', students have been learning about why Jesus is the most special person in the parish family.  We read Luke 2:41-52 'The Boy Jesus in the Temple' as a class. We discussed what made Jesus different than any other ordinary boy and what makes him special. Then, students used popsicle sticks with Jesus, Joseph, Mary and the teachers on them to role play the story and participated in a freeze frame. When students heard the word 'freeze' they were to pause where they were in their re-tell of the story, and if tapped on the head, they needed to tell everyone what their person was doing/feeling at that part in the story. "Mary is looking for Jesus. She is feeling worried" - Catherine "Joseph is working with Jesus as a carpenter" - Gianni "Jesus is talking with the teachers at the Temple" - Alfie "Mary, Joseph, and Jesus are travelling to the Temple. It's taking them a very...

  We have been enjoying reading Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr Fox together in class. Today we discussed how we use our conscience to make choices. We then thought about whether Mr Fox was making the right choice by stealing chickens from the farmers.   'Mr Fox would creep down into the valley in the darkness of the  night and help himself.' '...it made them wild with rage...less still did they like anything to be stolen from them.' After writing our thoughts down, we created a ‘conscience alley’ and shared our thoughts while Mr Fox walked through the alley. This was a good opportunity to refine our speaking and listening skills as well as referring to the text.

  This morning in Year 4, we put our persuasive writing skills to the test with a class debate. The statement we were debating was, 'Deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest should stop completely." We rearranged our classroom for the debate so we had two opposing sides. Our chairperson was Rohan, who did an excellent job of taking statements and running the debate, and our time keeper was Oli, who made sure no one ran over their allotted time. Each team took it in turns to counter the other side and put forward their argument. After break we had time to take questions and comments from the whole class.  The speakers arguing for were Jashryl, Angel and Nicola with Vinnie acting as team Captain. The speakers arguing against the statement were Lisa, Emil and Zephaniah with Bleu asking as team Captain. Well done to all the students who used facts, rhetorical questions and other persuasive devices to put forward their arguments.  "Even though they were arguing against us, we...

 As part of our current topic 'Books,' Year 2 learnt about special and important books that are used by the parish family. The have been learning about the Gospels. This led to our class liturgy which focused on Jesus' miracle at the Wedding in Cana, taken from John.  Today they had a chance to see some other important books such as: Lectionary, Missal and Book of Gospels. They discussed how they were used and who used them. Then they matched the books to their description. They also related this to their own experiences, for example, responding and participating during school Mass. The most interesting part was their discussion that followed. They were tasked with ordering the books from most important to least. Year 2 were fantastic at justifying their choices! Melvin: The children's Bible is very important because it is simplified for children to understand, so that they can learn. about God. Ajooni: I think the Lectionary is the most important because the leader us...

 Year 2 enjoyed some meaningful outdoor learning this week. To link with their IPC topic they visited the forest area to practise their sketching skills. They learnt about different ways to sketch to create different effects, including cross-hatching and shading.