St Pius X Catholic Primary School

 Today Year 2 prepared for a special visitor - Rabbi Irit. They have started to learn more about the Jewish faith, its similarities and differences with Catholicism and how they celebrate Shabbat. Questions included: What’s on the scroll on the mezuzah? Are synagogues different to churches? What do Jews do in the synagogue? Have you written using the Hebrew alphabet? What God do you believe in? What is a Torah? Rabbi Irit gave us an insight into the role of a Rabbi and even showed us how to write 'Shabbat' in Hebrew - they write from right to left and their alphabet doesn't include any vowels! She showed us her mezuzah with a tiny, handwritten scroll inside. She also showed us her Torah and explained about the 3 main sections - laws, prophets and stories/psalms. We finished by singing along to 'Shabbat, Shalom!' The children enjoyed learning about a different religion and were respectful and engaged.

  Catholics believe the cross is a symbol of Christianity Over the past two lessons, Year 1 have been exploring one of the most important symbols in the Christian faith: the cross . The children have approached this learning with curiosity, respect, and lots of enthusiasm — and we’re excited to share what they’ve been discovering. ✝️ Lesson 1: The Cross as a Christian Symbol We began with an I Spy Cross Hunt , looking closely at photographs to spot where crosses appear in everyday life — on churches, jewellery, buildings, artwork, and even in unexpected places. The children loved finding hidden crosses and talking about why they might be there. Learning the Sign of the Cross We introduced the Sign of the Cross , a short prayer Catholics say often. The children learned the simple movements: forehead chest left shoulder right shoulder And the words: “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.” We explained that this prayer reminds Christians of the Trini...

 On Wednesday, Reception class took a walk down to Blessed Sacrament to see our learning in real life. We have been learning about the features within a church and were kindly welcomed by Father Paul and Clare into the church for a look around all the features. The children spotted the pews, altar and cross and found statues of Mary and Joseph.  'Joseph is holding the tools because he did building'- Grace Back at school, the children had the opportunity to 'fix' the church, by placing all the special features in the correct places, as well as labelling key features.  The children had a great time and loved being able to see their learning in person. A big thank you to the parents who were able to support us on the walk, as this would not have been possible without extra adults. 

 This week in RE, we have continued learning the story of Pentecost. The children worked together to act out the story starting from when Jesus died on Good Friday.  We waved our arms above our heads to represent the wind, twinkly fingers to represent the fire and then practiced speaking in different languages.  The children then went around to each other to share the news of Jesus and his miracles.  'This is the Holy Spirit'- Nina  'It's a miracle'- Ethan  'Jesus is the God of life'- Valentina 'It was a miracle, he resurrected and then ascended'- Elijah 

  Year 1 R.E. - The Road to Emmaus This week in R.E., our Year 1 children have been exploring one of the most joyful stories from the Bible — Jesus appearing on the road to Emmaus after the Resurrection (Luke 24:13–35). Through creative storytelling, discussion, and hands‑on activities, the children have been learning that Christians believe Jesus is always with us, even when we don’t immediately recognise Him. Lesson 1 — Recognising Jesus We began with a lively “What am I?” game using props from earlier stories — Palm Sunday, the Last Supper, the Crucifixion, and the Resurrection — to help children recall what they already know about Jesus’ journey. Then we read a child‑friendly retelling of The Road to Emmaus , discovering how two friends walked with Jesus without realising who He was. Children created a story map to sequence the story, showing each key moment — walking, talking, breaking bread, and finally recognising Jesus. This helped them understand that sometimes we don’t s...

 This term in Religious Education, our Year 3 class explored the powerful and thought-provoking story of the Road to Emmaus. Found in the Gospel of Luke, this story tells of two disciples walking to a village called Emmaus after the events of Easter, feeling confused and saddened. Along the way, they meet a stranger who walks and talks with them, only later do they realise that it is Jesus himself. To bring this story to life, the children took part in a creative and collaborative activity, recreating the journey in small groups. This hands-on approach allowed pupils not only to understand the sequence of events but also to reflect more deeply on the emotions and meaning behind the story. It carries a very important message Blessed

 This week, all of Year 3 and 4's hard work has paid off for the Easter production: Easter Praise. Both classes did an amazing job and are very proud of themselves. Year 3 sang beautifully while the Year 4s dazzled us with some brilliant acting. Harley took the lead as Jesus, while Olive (Judas) and Florence (Peter) delighted the audience with a solo each. The play drew to a close with a duet from Tolu and Michelle (the Marys). All of their hard work came together in the highly enjoyable play.  On Monday, they performed in front of the school for their dress rehearsal.  Guests for our local community. For the first time, on Wednesday, we opened the performance to the local community. We were joined by Mr Coen (the Head Teacher of Saint John Payne), Some representatives of the Knight of Saint Columba, the SVP, the Wisdom Club and others in the local churches. It was very nerve-racking to perform in front of strangers, but they did a super job and our guests thoroughly enjo...

 A Wonderful Time at The Wisdom Club! What a wonderful visit The Mini Vinnies had this morning at The Wisdom Club, this is a regular event now and everyone has the most enjoyable time.  The younger members of the community meeting with the older members of the community.  There was a lot of singing with the children singing some of their favourite songs, and many members of The Wisdom Club joined in with the Abba songs!! The children shared their work with their friends at the club, they were particularly excited to show their IPC work of WW2.  Cakes and drinks were served which always goes down well. Olive and Agnes the Year 4 Mini Vinnies invited the members of The Wisdom Club to a special performance of their Easter Production next week, so we are looking forward to seeing some there. We received a lovely email from the Canonesses of the Holy Sepulchre Pauline McAloone saying, ' A BIG THANKYOU -  Thank you and the children so much for entertaining us today....

  Why do Catholics believe that Palm Sunday is special? This week in Year 1, the children have been exploring the story of Palm Sunday and learning why it is such an important celebration for Catholics. Over two lessons, we focused on hearing the story from Scripture and celebrating the symbols and actions that help Catholics remember Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem. 🌟 Lesson 1 – Palm Sunday (Hear) We began by looking at a picture of a donkey and asking a simple but powerful question: Why might Jesus choose a donkey instead of a horse? The children shared thoughtful ideas about peace, gentleness, and humility. We then listened to the Palm Sunday story from Luke 19:28–38 , where the crowds welcomed Jesus with joy, waving branches and shouting “Hosanna!” Together, we explored new vocabulary such as procession , hosanna , and cloaks , helping the children understand the meaning behind the actions. For their activity, the children created a story map , drawing the key e...

What are the Mini Vinnies involved with at the moment? The Mini Vinnies are very busy. We have weekly meetings and right now we are beginning St. Vincent De Paul's Lenten Campaign. This year’s  SVP Heart to Heart Lent campaign   focuses on   loneliness , a hidden issue that affects people of all ages, even in busy schools and communities. The message is simple and powerful:   reach out and have a conversation . Inspired by  St Pier Giorgio Frassati , an SVP member who believed in friendship and lifting others  verso l’alto  (“to the heights”), the campaign shows how caring for others helps us grow too. The Heart to Heart campaign will be a 5 week Lenten journey.  Each week we will explore stories of Jesus listening to and caring for those who felt lonely or forgotten.  We will be doing activities that build towards a final challenge where we have a 'heart to heart' conversation with someone in our community.  We have started with Week 1 ...

Year 5 gathered for our very special Class Mass . It was a wonderful opportunity for us to pause, reflect, and celebrate our faith together as a community. We were delighted to welcome Father Paul , who joined us in the classroom to lead the service. His presence always brings a sense of calm and joy to our school, and it was a privilege to have him guide us through our worship. Year 5 showed spiritual maturity during the times of reflection and participated fully in the worship.  Thank you to those parents who were able to join us for the service. We are already looking forward to our next Mass. 

 Year 4 have been getting ready for Christmas. The class has made our own personalised advent calendar. Each window has a part of the nativity story made by a different student. We're starting off each day opening a window and then adding characters to our crib. The three wise men have also been travelling around the classroom as they make their way to baby Jesus. In RE, we learned about Jesse trees and how the readings during Advent help Catholics welcome Jesus into their hearts. Each student took a day and created little baubles to put on our tree. One the back, we wrote the readings and on the front we put the traditional symbols linked to the readings. Our Christmas activities have even spilled into Maths. This week we started our area unit and created shapes with certain areas. We then created lots of rectangles and created paper chains for our class. We thought about which area and shapes worked best and found that if the width was too long in comparison to the length, it mad...

Thank you so much to everyone who took the time to design a front cover for our upcoming nativity - Busy, Busy Bethlehem! We have been astounded by some of the amazing entries and it was very difficult to choose the winners! All of the designs will be displayed around the school. The winners are: Reception - Idrees and Macie Year 1 - Coby and Joelle Year 2 - Cairo and Hannah We are excited to perform this week and to remember the true reason for our celebrations at Christmas.

Today, we marked  Remembrance Day  as our  Head Girl and Head Boy represented St Pius X Catholic Primary School at the War Memorial on Church Green in Broomfield . They joined members of the community to honour and remember those who have sacrificed their lives for peace and freedom by laying down a poppy wreath. It was a poignant service , providing a time for reflection, remembrance, and prayer . Both pupils represented our school beautifully, truly embodying our school values of peace, integrity and service.                    Ella shared, “I felt proud to be a representative of St Pius X and our school values.” Joe reflected, “It was special to dedicate our time to remember those who have fallen.” Their words capture the reverence and gratitude felt during the ceremony - a reminder of the importance of remembering and praying for peace in our world. Lord, we remember all who have given their lives in the struggle ...

What a wonderful and inspiring time we've been having during our class worship sessions in Year 5! It's been truly fantastic to see the children not just participating, but completely taking ownership of this special time together - guided by Miss Lowrey. Planning with Purpose Our worship isn't something that's just presented to the class; it's something the children plan and create themselves. They spend time discussing and selecting different forms of worship, making sure there's something meaningful for everyone. This includes: Role Play: Acting out stories or scenarios to explore moral lessons and themes. Hymns and Songs: Carefully choosing music that resonates with the message of the worship. Reflection: Deciding on activities or moments for quiet contemplation. It’s been incredible to watch their maturity shine as they decide how best to structure the session. Centered Around a Theme We often centre our class worship around a specific theme to help us focu...

 Mini Vinnies visit The Wisdom Club This morning The Mini Vinnies visited our friends at The Wisdom Club.  As always with our visits to The Wisdom Club it was a lot of fun. The Mini Vinnies entertained the members of the club with some of their favourite songs including, Mamma Mia, Sometimes Lord, Oceans and Celebrate which got everyone clapping. The children then spent time with the members showing them some of their school work so far this academic year, which is something our friends always enjoy.  The children shared their art work and their English work.   The visit finished with a drink of juice and some cakes and biscuits which is always a winner with the children!!! 

 This week, we have finished our learning of our Creation and Covenant topic and have been thinking about our over-arching Big Question: How did the world begin?  We started the week thinking about what we can do to look after ourselves:  'Eat healthy food'- Quinn 'Washing our hands and bodies'- Jeevan 'Exercising'- Logan We also thought about what we can do to look after each other: 'Help our friends if they fall over'- Macie-Grace 'Help children to do their writing'- Grace 'Give someone a plaster'- Ivy This then led us to think about what we can do to look after God's world. The children all came up with the idea of tidying up and thought back to when we did litter picking for service week! We decided we all wanted to be good stewards and made a promise to God that we would always help to tidy up.   

 This week, the children have been exploring our learning question: How are we invited into God's family? We have been learning all about baptisms and looking at photos of our own baptisms to see if we can spot: candles, water, oil and the priests robe. We watched different videos of real life baptisms to show us the similarities within them all and then we had to chance to role play a baptism. Finally, we thought about what prayers and words we might want a baby to hear when they are invited into God's family.  "We need water on the baby's head"- Archie  "Water is for cleaning and washing the bad stuff"- Brian  "It's the sign of the cross"- Valentina and Jesse-Joy "The priest puts the water on the baby"- Grace  "Candle is the light of God"- Logan 

It's that time of year again. Year 4 walked down to Blessed Sacrament Church for morning mass. Despite the drizzle, they were well behaved and enjoyed the experience of taking part in the mass. The students did the school so proud that they even had parishoners tell them they were a credit to the school. We all enjoyed our experience and look forward to the next one. 

'Serving,' in Service Week -  Yesterday, as part of Service Week, The Mini Vinnies were delighted to hold a Cream Tea event in the afternoon welcoming grandparents of the pupils and members of The Wisdom Club, a local Social Group in the Community.  The Mini Vinnies made sure our guests were very well looked  after, they served delicious scones, made by our talented Catering Manager, Mrs Hughes, topped with  cream and jam!  Delicious said all!!  We then entertained everyone with some fabulous singing and  Year 3 also popped in and sang a song they had learned in their music lesson with Miss Lowrey, and  showed us some freestyle dancing to!!  Everyone had an amazing afternoon, and our guests left feeling really happy and said how fantastic  the afternoon was!