St Pius X Catholic Primary School

 Today, we made our own ice cream to help with the heat and as an end of year treat.  We used our phonics skills to read the ingredients and instructions.  We had to use double cream, sweetened condensed milk and vanilla extract. First we had to whisk the double cream until it made strong peaks. The children all showed each other what a peak looks like using their hands.  “ It's making bubbles” Quinn “ It looks like milk” Lydia “It looks a little bit thicker” Jesse-Joy Then we had to fold in the condensed milk, which bought up lots of discussion around what folding meant; we knew we couldn't fold like a blanket so how did we do it?  Finally, we added the vanilla and poured the mixture into freezable containers. 3 containers were topped with oreo and 2 we left plain.  “The vanilla will make it sweet” Valentina “It looks beautiful and so fresh!” Takundanashe “It’s starting to look like ice cream” Ivy “You fold rather than mix as its keeps it solid” Nina Finge...

  Exploring Aboriginal Art and Culture This week, Year 1 took part in a wonderful cross‑curricular art lesson inspired by the Aboriginal peoples of Australia . The children were fascinated as we learned about who the Aboriginal peoples are , how they lived , and why storytelling and artwork are so important in their culture . We began by exploring traditional Aboriginal symbols and looking closely at examples of dot‑style artwork . The children loved discovering how these symbols were used to share stories about animals, journeys, families, and the land. They were especially interested in how Aboriginal artists use colour, pattern, and dots to represent the world around them. After our discussion, the children moved into their art activity. Using watercolours , they carefully painted an Australian animal in an Aboriginal style — thinking about patterns, dots, and earthy colours. Once dry, they cut out their artwork , mounted it on black card , and decorated the background using t...

Thank you to all the family and friends who attended our annual Exhibition Afternoon. The children have all been working hard to create 'sculptures' to exhibit. There was an amazing variety - paper sculptures, clay, recycled materials, wire figures..... what a wonderful example of the creativity of our students! Thank you for also visiting your child's classroom to see some of the brilliant work they have been doing in class. We appreciate your ongoing support and the children love to share their achievements with you!

  Year 1 Art Week – Sculpture & Aboriginal Art Focus During Art Week, Year 1 have been busy exploring art through sculpture and painting , taking inspiration from Australia and its rich artistic traditions. The children began the week by learning about different types of sculptures and how artists use shape, texture and form to bring ideas to life. They then created their very own Australian animal clay sculptures , carefully shaping kangaroos, koalas, wombats and more. The children loved experimenting with clay tools, smoothing, carving and adding details to make their animals look as realistic as possible. Later in the week, the children learned about Aboriginal dot painting , looking closely at traditional patterns, symbols and colours. They created beautiful dot‑style backgrounds to accompany their clay sculptures, thinking carefully about colour choices and repeating patterns. These paintings were designed to sit alongside their sculptures in our Art Week Exhibition. The f...

 On Tuesday, Reception Class took their first school trip to Maldon, where they could link this to their learning of the seaside. The children had to build their own sandcastles and then complete observational drawings of the boats in the water. They all loved playing in the sand and worked hard to complete their drawings, really focusing on the details they could see on the boats.  We also got to see people working on their boats and watched a sail boat travel across the water. The children spotted speed boats and sail boats.  We got to eat our lunch in the park and play on the all the play equipment, which was so much fun that even the adults had to take a turn! The children all behaved incredibly throughout the day and loved being on the coach, even if it did send a few of them to sleep.  A massive thank you to all the parents who were able to support on the trip, it really does make a big difference!   

 On Friday, the Year 4s had a fantastic day in London. We caught from the train from Chelmsford to Liverpool street and then went to Tower Bridge via the Tower of London. The Children were amazed to see both these sites and really enjoyed crossing the bridge and getting to look over the edge. We stopped next to the bridge for a snack and a break.  We then walked past some of London's famous sites to the Globe theatre. When we got there, we had a fantastic tour from our guide. She took us through the theatre and explain the history of the place and how played worked. We even got to see some of the actors warming up for their afternoon performance.  We then went across the street to their practice studios to do an acting workshop based on the characters of Macbeth. We went through different moments and poses for the different character. Our guide then took us through some games to build up to acting out the confrontation between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth.  After sitting...

 Miss Lowry along with the Mini Vinnies organised an amazing cultural day for the school. We learnt about the different traditions, clothes, food and dance of countries all around the world. We were very lucky to be able to hear from parents in our class about their home countries and traditions.  The children then learnt different dances from each country and got to practise around the hall, having so much fun!  Finally, the children were invited to explore different clothes and musical instruments from the countries. They loved dressing up and getting the opportunity to explore the different cultures.  Thank you to Miss Lowry, Mini Vinnies and the parents involved who made the workshop a great success. 

🔥Fire blazing 🔥 smoke billowing 🔥people panicking! Year 2 set the scene today by reenacting the Great Fire of London. First the recalled the main events using relevant vocabulary. Then they wrote key words on their own 'flames.' In the hall, they acted out the embers burning in the bakery before the fire spread across the city. People had to fetch buckets of water from the Thames!  The Mayor was less than helpful, denying them the use of fire-hooks. Samuel Pepys rowed across London to inform the King.  The wind and the wooden houses meant the fire spread quickly! It was chaos! Lots of buildings were damaged. Eventually the wind died down and the fire stopped. Back in class, they wrote a summary of the main events.  Next we will be making comparisons between London then and now, and considering what impact the Great Fire has had on society today.  Well done Year 2!

🎵Today Year 2 had a chance to use the glockenspiels to play along to a familiar piece of music - 'Count on me' by Bruno Mars. They learnt about the musical notes A-G and how the notes repeat. Then they took turns to practice playing the scale, and then the specific notes that would play along with the music (which were C-E-G-B-E-G).  They were quite accurate and kept the beat well, so it made a rather lovely sound when they played together!

Year 5 enjoyed celebrating David Attenborough on Friday - our school representative for the value of 'Service'.  Mrs Wiseman had planned a fun filled day for the whole school involving an animal workshop which they loved!  Along side this, each class completed their own pieces of work to commemorate his 100th birthday. Year 5 chose to complete some pencil sketches using shading to complete a half portrait.  The results were absolutely outstanding! The children took time to think carefully about the proportions of the face, to blend carefully and to choose different stengths of pencil to create their desired effect. They worked meticulously on the details and I am sure you will agree the results were phenomenal!  'You need to really concentrate to shade in the right places.' - Nicola  'Getting the symetry was hard, but, after you have an outline you can shade inside.' - Emil Nicola Emil Jashryl  Nathan Elsa  Janae  Harry  I will be posting som...

🌏 COMPETITION 🌏  Wow - we certainly have some creative pupils here at St Pius! We wanted to celebrate Earth Day , thinking about why our world is precious and how we can be responsible citizens by looking after our environment.  We have been overwhelmed with entries and the quality, effort and important messages that have been included is just amazing. Thank you to everyone who participated in the competition.  It has been incredibly difficult to choose a winner from KS1 and KS2! Every entry has been awarded 20 house points and all posters are proudly displayed around the school. KS1 Winner - Joelle!   Her 3D Earth was decorated with beautiful watercolours and some reminders on how to look after the Earth! KS2 Winner - Austin!   His 3D save the earth poster had lots of important messages!