St Pius X Catholic Primary School

As a culmination of our English work last term, we recently teamed up in groups to create an epic ‘Explorer Exhibition’ . The goal was to take everything we’ve learned from our class book and bring it to life in a creative, interactive way. The Explorer Exhibition wasn't just about recapping the plot; it was about digging deeper. Each group was tasked with diving into three main areas: The Main Themes: We explored the big ideas hidden within the pages—things like survival, friendship, resilience, and the beauty of discovery. Character Evolution: Characters don’t stay the same, and we tracked how our favorites changed from the very first chapter to the final page. It was fascinating to map out their growth, their struggles, and how the journey transformed them. Key Learning Points: We also looked at the bigger picture, connecting the book to the wider lessons we’ve tackled across the term. To make sure everything ran smoothly, every single member of each group had a specific role...

  🌿 Celebrating David Attenborough in Year 1 (Marking his 100th Birthday!) Over the past two weeks, Year 1 have been completely immersed in the wonderful world of Sir David Attenborough as part of our English learning. Using Little People, Big Dreams: David Attenborough as our focus text, the children have explored his life, his love of nature, and the incredible work he has done to protect our planet. It has been a joy watching the children learn about someone who has inspired millions of people — young and old — to care for the natural world. 🌍 Learning All About David Attenborough Through pictures, discussions, and simple research, the children have discovered: Who David Attenborough is Why he is such an important figure How he has helped us understand animals and their habitats Why looking after our planet matters They have been practising their reading, writing, and speaking skills by creating fact files, writing sentences, and sharing what they have learned with their fri...

Year 2 have been enjoying reading all about Babe's adventures in our new class book - The Sheep Pig by Dick King-Smith.  They have completed lots of amazing, descriptive writing whilst trying to include specific punctuation (apostrophes for contractions and possession, commas in lists) and exciting vocabulary. After discussing how different characters felt in the book ‘The Sheep-Pig,’ they chose a character (Babe, Fly or Mrs Hoggett)  and gave Farmer Hogget advice about his dilemma… Should Farmer Hoggett let Babe copy Fly and be a sheep-pig? We role-played giving Farmer Hoggett advice so that he could  make a decision as he walked through the ‘conscience alley.’ This was a great opportunity for the children to proudly articulate their ideas as well as listen to their peers. By getting into role, children also had a chance to step into that character and consider what they might think and why! It meant they really had to think about the story and what we ...

This half term, we are learning all about transport and vehicles and this week, we started by learning about cars and the road. We had a visitor join us from Safer Essex to deliver a road safety talk and interactive session to the children and parents.  The interactive session allowed children to identify different vehicles we might see on the road and taught them the Green Cross Code.  We learnt an accompanying song to help us remember the rules to 'Stop, Look, Listen and Think'.  During the session, children and grown ups were given the chance to practice crossing a pretend road using the Green Cross Code.  'We must look before we cross the road or we might die'- Lydia  'Look both ways'- Brian  'Some cars can even reverse and might not see us'- Ethan  Then throughout the week, we made our own road safety posters explaining the rules of crossing the road and sang the song lots of times! 

Year 2 had an exciting start to their new English unit, based around a book called  'Wild Magic - Legend of the Black Lion,'  by Abiola Bello. It is set in Ethiopia. Mrs Griffiths had a mystery bag containing clues about the story.... a safari hat, binoculars and a picture of a black lion! The children made predictions using these clues alongside information they had taken from the book cover and blurb. We then read chapter one together and noted down important things we had learnt about each character so far. As we continue reading, we will practise and refine important reading skills (sequencing, summarising) and use key narrative skills (describing, linking ideas, using a variety of punctuation) to write our own adventure story!

Our annual book week has been a huge sucess!  We kicked off the week with some wonderful class swap lessons - the teachers moved around to different classes and delivered a one off fun English lesson! Many of these involved drama and stotytelling - a great way to kick off the week!  We also launched our masked reader competition on Monday! 3 members of staff masked themselves while reading an extract of a book for the children. The children have spent all week working out who's behind the mask - it has created a joy and a buzz around the school! The children really enjoyed the masked reader unveiling - results below! Thank you to all the staff who participated!  Every year we love welcoming you in for our reading cafes. It is a real moment of joy to see families coming together to read together. The children simply love it when parents can come into school and share in their learning and we truly believe that reading with our families is hugley important for both reading ...

Year 5 have been immersed in Louis Sachar’s There’s a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom , and as we approached the end of the novel, the big question remained: What happens next? The children were tasked with writing the "missing" Chapter 48, exploring Bradley’s journey as he continues to navigate his new friendships and newfound self-confidence. Instead of reaching straight for the pens, we took a detour into drama . Planning through drama allowed the students to: Test Dialogue: They could hear how Bradley or Carla might actually sound, making their written dialogue much more authentic. Feel the Emotion: By physically acting out a scene, the children tapped into the "butterflies" Bradley feels, or the frustration of a misunderstanding.  We can’t wait to see these dramatic performances translated into what promise to be some of the wonderful pieces of writing. 

  Drama & Role‑Play – Becoming Night Pirates! This week in English, Year 1 set sail on a magical moonlit adventure inspired by the much‑loved story The Night Pirates . The classroom transformed into a world of shadows, sneaky footsteps, and brave young buccaneers as the children stepped into the roles of the characters and brought key scenes to life. Re‑enacting the Adventure To deepen their understanding of the story, the children worked together to re‑enact some of the most exciting moments: Climbing aboard the pirate ship Children used big actions and expressive faces to show how the little pirates scrambled onto the ship in the dark of night. Sneaking past the grown‑ups This was a favourite moment. The class tiptoed, whispered, and used careful body language to show how the pirates crept silently through the night. Stealing the treasure With plenty of imagination, the children acted out discovering the treasure and carrying it away triumphantly. These drama activit...

 This half term, we have introduced new writing lessons, called Drawing Club. Children focus on a story, traditional tale or cartoon each week. We discuss new vocabulary similar to that in the text and then draw our own creations. Alongside this, children have to write the magic code of their choosing to bring their pencil to life and perform all sorts of magic. On day 1, we draw a main character, day 2 is setting and days 3 and 4 are when our creativity truly starts- Adventure Time. These lessons allow children to take the story in any direction they choose.  The children are really pushing themselves with their writing without even knowing it. They truly want to write so their picture becomes whatever they imagine.  This week, we are focusing on The Gingerbread Man. On Monday we drew the Gingerbread Man, Tuesday we drew the river he had to cross and today we decided to bring in a new character.  'I'm going to draw a stinky carrot'- Macie  'Mine is the happy le...

 This week, continuing on with our IPC topic we were comparing the two settlements of Skara Brea and Ur. We set up two 'archeological digs' in the hall, one for each city and laid out different evidence and artefacts. We became amateur archeoligst by commparing the two cities and thought about what the different artefacts could mean. We thought that Ur migth have city walls because they had enemies they might need to protect themselves from and that the people of Skara Brea may have used bone for their jewellery because they didn't have any other resources.  After, we wrote up all the thngs we had discovered in our IPC books. 

 This week, the children have loved playing and engaging in our Christmas Post Office. They have had access to postcards, Christmas cards, stamps and other writing materials for them to mark make on and write words. Everyone has loved using the postbox that Mrs Wiseman made us to 'post' our letters and cards. Later in the week, we enhanced the provision by adding letters to Santa for the children to write on. There's been some great conversations happening in the role play area.  'I want a big car to ride in, so big like me'- Esther 'Come in what do you want to buy?'- Grace 'Let's write to Santa'- Immanuel 

  Our recent English unit has been an epic adventure, starting with diving into the world of Percy Jackson and the Olympians. The students were instantly hooked on the tales of demigods, monsters, and the mysterious training ground known as Camp Half-Blood. Reading the novel provided a rich, exciting context that fuelled their final writing project. The main focus of this unit was persuasive writing. The goal was to create a travel brochure for Camp Half-Blood designed to convince demigod teenagers to pack their bags and enroll! The children became marketing experts, mastering several key techniques: Catchy Slogans: They brainstormed brilliant taglines like "Don't just read the myths, live them!" and "Your destiny awaits!" to immediately grab the reader's attention. Emotive Adjectives: To make the camp sound irresistible, they chose powerful, feeling-evoking words, describing the experience as "thrilling," "unforgettable," and "abso...

 Year 4's building strange new worlds in their English this half term. While 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" the stdents are thinking about creating their own worlds to set their stories in. This week, Year 4's have been creating dioramas. Using a range of materials (from pipe cleaners to paper and sparkles) they have been designing and creating their own strange new worlds to set their stories in. They had to carefully think about which material to use for their designs and how to create 3D shapes. It was amazing to see them all proud of their work and seeing some amazing designs. The next day, they used post-it notes to create a plan of their own setting description. Writing on them descriptions throgh the five senses, expanded noun phrases, similes, metaphors and wow vocabulary. Now that the world's are created, we are looking forward to creating our epic tales of adventure.

This week in Year 1 has been full of excitement, curiosity, and a little bit of mischief! Our focus has been on the much-loved story The Naughty Bus by Jan and Jerry Oke, and the children have truly brought the book to life in our classroom. 📖 Introducing the Naughty Bus We began the week by listening to the story together. The children were captivated by the adventures of the cheeky red bus and enjoyed talking about what we already know about buses. Why do we use them? Where do they take us? How do they help people in everyday life? This sparked wonderful discussions about journeys, transport, and the important role buses play in our community. 🕵️‍♂️ A Crime Scene in the Classroom! The next day, the children arrived to find something very unusual… chaos had struck! Chairs were overturned, books were scattered, and a mysterious trail of clues led across the classroom. A crime scene was set up, and our young detectives got straight to work. After gathering evidence and piecing togeth...

 All through October, Year 4 have been doing a range of activities to celebrate Black History Month. We've been listening to a range of music from the last 300 years from various black artists during our coming in times. The top shelf of our library corner has all had books all relating to black history and  black authors.  We've also been learning about a range of different figures from history and modern influential people today during our reading comprehensions. We've read about Ignatis Sancho, Queen Nzinga, Malorie Blackman, Mo Farah and Katherine Johnson. Each student choose one of these people to research so that they coud write a biography on their choosen person this week.  These aren't the only people we've looked at. We've particularly focused on the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. We created art works insired by his very unique and emotive artworks. We listened to music to colour our backgrounds as Basquiat was very inspired by the music he listened to. ...

  Our Year 6 pupils have stepped into the world of Japanese poetry as they enter The Japan Society’s Haiku Competition 2025–2026 . 📜✨ A haiku is a tiny poem—just three lines—that captures a moment, often inspired by nature or emotions. This year’s theme is “Sound” , so our writers have been tuning in to everything from birdsong to playground laughter to spark their creativity. They’ve worked incredibly hard: listening, drafting, editing and even creating artwork to accompany their poems. The focus, effort and imagination they've shown has been truly impressive! With entries now ready to go, we’re wishing Year 6 the very best of luck. Whatever the outcome, they’ve already achieved something special. 🌟 https://www.japansociety.org.uk/haiku-contest-2025-2026

This week, Year 6 pupils have been busy unleashing their creativity as they plan and draft their entries for the BBC 500 Words Competition . From exciting adventures and magical worlds to heartwarming tales and thought-provoking stories, the children have been working hard to craft original and imaginative pieces of writing. They’ve been exploring what makes a great story — developing characters, building suspense, and using powerful vocabulary to bring their ideas to life. We can’t wait to see the final versions of their entries — good luck to all our budding authors! 🌟✍️📚 For more information visit www.bbc.co.uk/teach/500-words 

Year 1 have had a lovely week exploring the story of  Jack and the Beanstalk . We have been using actions to help us retell the story and used masks to act it out with our friends. The children had a lot of fun running away from the giant! The children have done a great job listening and remembering the story. They used brilliant expression when acting out the different parts and really brought the characters to life. We have also spent time talking about our favourite characters and thinking about who is the most important in the story. There were lots of thoughtful ideas and great discussion. 'The bean seller is the most important character because he gives Jack the magic beans for the beanstalk to grow.' - Abiya 'The giant is the most important character because he has all the things Jack needs to bring back down to his mum.' - Logan 'Jack is the most important character in the story because he is so brave and works so hard to help his mum.' -  Theodor In our...

The crayons are not happy! Our class book is 'The Day the Crayons Came Home' by Drew Daywalt and Oliver Jeffers. You can read the story here . We have explored the different emotions the crayons have shown towards their owner, Duncan, including anger, pride, anxiety and joy! The crayons write postcards to Duncan so we decided to write one too. We had to imagine how we would feel and give reasons. Here are some examples of our wonderful writing...