At St. Mary’s Catholic Primary School, Personal, Social, Health, and Economic (PSHE) education is embedded within our

overarching curriculum that prepares our children for many different aspects of their lives.  

Our overall goal is to help our children to become well-rounded individuals with strong character, who will eventually go out into the world of adults and be actively and positively involved in society.   In order to do this, we are striving to create a conducive environment around the school and this year we have created our own specific Personal Development Curriculum that is entwined with our academic curriculum.

Our curriculum aims to provide engagement and enrichment and through this, we aim for all children to have equal opportunities to thrive together.  

Academic Year 2024-2025

Creative LEGO Builders Workshop 

As part of our science topic this half term in Saxophone class, we are learning about electricity.  We've taken part in a LEGO Builders workshop where we made our own LEGO cities before adding circuits to create light!  We even added a moving train!

LEGO Builders 

Y3/4 and Y6 had the pleasure of learning about circuits and electricity through making LEGO houses and creating a circuit to light up their own town. They all had a great time.

Science in Bodhran Class (Year 1 / 2)

We have been testing the water absorbency of a variety of materials such as tin foil, cardboard, wood, paper, plastic bags, cotton wool and bubble wrap.

STEM RAF Rocket Builder Challenge Day

We have taken part in this year’s rocket builder STEM challenge whereby we had to make our own rocket and test its launch.  We had to think about many different areas of STEM including the science behind the launch, the maths behind its build, the design process and much more!  We worked as a team to create our own rockets and then we tested them out to see how far they travelled.  Our STEM booklets show the process and the testing and recording stages.

Bodhran Class- Autumn 2

We have been investigating different everyday materials. We explored our whole school to see what materials we could find. We found examples of metal, plastic, fabric, glass, wood, wool, rubber and brick. We had a really great discussion about all of these different materials and what is the same and what is different. We then read the ‘Spacesuit’ a book about the seamstresses who won a competition to make the spacesuits for  Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong -the first men on the moon. This made us wonder… what everyday material would be best to make a spacesuit? 

Science in Harp Class
 

Heart & Lung Dissecting in Saxophone Class

This morning, we had a visit from two science teachers from Cardinal Allen.  During our practical session, we took part in heart and lung dissecting.  It was interesting to see the different components of each which in turn helped us to consolidate the learning we have done in class.

Identifying the Components of the Blood in Saxophone Class

Four our session today, we 'made' the components of the blood using sweet treats!  This helped us to remember the different components and what they do inside our bodies!

In Bodhran class we have been exploring our five senses. Here we are investigating our sense of taste. We tried five different foods from the five taste groups.

• Sweet- marshmallow
• Salty- ready salted crisps
• Sour- lemon
• Bitter- dark chocolate
• Savoury- cheese

We then held a class vote to find our favourite taste. Not surprisingly sweet taste got the most votes and in second place was the sour taste.

Accordian Class

The children have created their own nature catchers, they really enjoyed exploring our outside space and finding lots of minibeasts.

In Bodhran Class we have been learning all about our own bodies. We started off by seeing how many body parts we could label (after drawing around our friend). We then started to think about our five senses. We have been on a sound walk around school to listen carefully to all the different things we could hear and we have had a treasure hunt in our classroom when we had to use our eyes to finds objects to match different descriptions.

Science in Harp Class 

Grouping and classifying living things

Academic Year 2023-2024

Year 4 have been learning all about teeth - the types of teeth, their function, how it links with diet as well as the layers we have. Year 4 learnt about eh layers and how we need to look after them. The children then used a disclosing tablet to see the plaque on their teeth - blue is old and red is new. We then shared ways we can help protect our teeth and avoid getting plaque by changing our toothbrush monthly, brushing twice a day (for two minutes) and avoiding sugary food and drinks.

Hughes Class - Year 1

Hughes Class have been thinking about different types of animals. We have looked at mammals, birds, fish, amphibians, reptiles and how all of these types of animal have their own special features. Next up we will be thinking about what animals eat and how we can discover whether an animal is a herbivore, carnivore or omnivore by investigating their poo! 😂

Whole School Planetarium Day

The Planetarium visited school today to engage us further in science.  During the session, we learned about the sun, Earth, the moon, and space.  We learnt about the NASA space mission to the moon and how the space rockets are built and sustained. 

Heart & Lung Dissecting

Thank you to Cardinal Allen for coming into school this morning to support our science topic.  They were able to lead a session on heart and lung dissecting.  This enabled the children to see up close the components of the heart and the lung!  A very interesting, practical session.

Mad Science TV Performance!

In Science, we've created our own Mad Science TV show that teaches children all about the circulatory system!

The Circulatory System Project Homework

The children enjoyed making their own creations for the circulatory system homework!  We had a range of projects from game show quizzes, 3D models, fact files, leaflets and practical equipment!  A huge well done to everyone involved!  We loved showcasing these in class today!

Year 2/3 - Waterproof Investigation

Year 2/3 children completed their Science topic on Materials by planning and conducting an investigation on which materials are waterproof. We tested tin foil, felt, nylon and cling film. We discussed the need for a fair test, what we would keep the same and what we change.

Voltage Experiment 

In science, we experimented with voltage.  We wanted to find out whether the bulb would be brighter with a higher voltage and whether the buzzer would be louder with a higher voltage.  

RAF Challenge Day - STEM

Today, we took part in a rocket builders challenge which was presented by the RAF.  During the STEM challenge, we designed, built and tested our rockets before taking part in a sustainability for the future challenge.  Take a look at some of our hard work!  Thank you to the Royal Air Force for sponsoring this challenge; we had lots of fun. 

Maurice Sendak - Electro LEGO Builders workshop

We had so much fun today starting off our electricity topic with a WOW starter.  Stephen from LEGO builders came in to help us build LEGO cities which included lights and circuits.  We added moving trains and put all of our buildings together to make one big city!  Look at our creations...