November 22, 2024

22 November 2024 – Newsletter – School Update and Christmas Dates!

Headlines

The heating and gas issue has been solved, so we are open as normal on Monday.

Have a great weekend, Charles

🎄Christmas Reminders! 🎄

St Mark’s FOSM Christmas Fayre – Sat 30th Nov 12-3pm. Full details below. Book Santa’s grotto – click here!
Friday 29th November Non-School Uniform day – details on the Snowman below.
School Council Toy Project – details below – donations by Friday 29th November.
Book your tickets for your child’s Christmas performance/Carol Service – full details here.

This Week's Homework & Learning

Listed here for all children.

Click here

Look after our farm animals

Thank you!

Click here

FOSM Christmas Fayre – Sat 30th Nov 12-3pm

⭐ FOSM Events ⭐

Non-School Uniform Day - Friday 29th November
Christmas Fayre - Saturday 30th November 🎅 Book Santa

It’s the Christmas Fayre on Saturday 30th November, 12-3pm. Full of fun games, stalls, activities, refreshments and Santa’s Grotto! The fayre is free to enter and visits to Santa cost £4 per child and include a small gift. Grotto visits must be booked in advance by 25th November via the FOSM online shop: Click here to book your visit to meet Santa.
More FOSM dates for your diary

⚠️Lost books! Please help!📚

Please can everyone have a check at home for any SLS (School Library Service) library books.

These books should have a label on the spine like this:

We still have over 100 books missing and must return these ASAP to avoid being charged £700! We would really appreciate it if you could have a good look and return these as soon as possible as this money could be much better used on things that our children need.

St Mark’s Photo Reel

Mia and Oliver wanted to do something to say thank you to their mum’s colleagues for all they do as nurses and doctors. They made cookies and cake and delivered them too. They also made thank you posters. Well done! You are super Agents of Change!

Thank you so much for all your fabulous Bag2School donations! We will let you know how much we have raised in due course. Thank you FOSM – another great fund-raising mission complete! 🌟

Toy Appeal School Appeal

As a school council, we would like to support The Community Furniture Project with their Christmas toy appeal (see attached flyer for further details).

We are therefore asking for any unopened and unwrapped gifts or toys to be donated.

If you are able to, please can your child bring in a toy or gift to school. This could be a soft toy, a book, or a toy car. They often lack toys for babies and teenagers so it would be great to have more toys or gifts appropriate for these ages if possible. Please note that donations should not be perishable.

A donation of a toy or gift would be preferable, however if you are unable to, then please feel free to donate £1 which we will put towards buying donations.

Please send in your donations by Friday 29th November. They will then be collected and sent to The Community Furniture Project.

Little gestures make a big difference.

Thank you

St Mark’s School Council

Foodbank Friday!

Many local supermarkets host a permanent donation point where people can leave the donations they purchase during their visit but we would also like to set up a station in school where children can feel that they are making a difference to help others.

We are encouraging children to occasionally bring in an item of food, which they can put in a box near reception.

We will update the list each week or you may prefer to download the Bank the Food App. This will update it weekly on the items we’re running low on. It’s a great app and you only need to download it and select Basingstoke Foodbank as preferred. You can also activate notifications which means you’ll get a reminder when you visit the supermarket, so you never forget to donate. It lets you know the items they most need.

What is your child learning this half-term?

⭐ Star Learners ⭐

⭐ Star Readers ⭐

⭐ Quietest Classes ⭐

These will be carried over to next week.

⭐ Attendance Updates ⭐

Our target over the year is 97%. Last year’s attendance was 95.8% – above national levels, but we’d like it to be much higher.

Our current attendance percentage is 96.6% 😐

Weekly Attendance by Class

What's the impact on missing school?

Categories	Learning days lost
Acceptable sickness & unforeseen absences.	98% = 4 days
	97% = 6 days
	96% = 8 days
Attendance below 95% is of concern to the school & you will be contacted automatically.10 days unauthorised absences for holidays over the year mean you will only achieve 95% attendance. Sickness & medical appointments, although usually unavoidable & authorised, will add further to your child’s absence record.	95% = 10 days
	94% = 12 days
	93% = 14 days
	92% = 16 days
Poor attendance Attendance below 90% is a serious concern. Your child has now missed nearly 4 weeks’ education. You may be referred to the Early Help team at the local authority.	91% = 18 days
	90% = 20 days
	89% = 21 days
	88% = 23 days
	87% = 25 days
	86% = 27 days
Very poor attendance	85% = 29 days
	84% = 31 days
	82% = 35 days
	80% = 39 days

Reminder of the new rules

School Dates, Lunches, and Clubs

View the full calendar here. Subscribe on either Chrome/ Android or Apple

Meals
PE Days
PE Uniform details can be found here. Remember, football shirts, hoodies, or general day-to-day clothing are not acceptable as PE kit.

Year R
- Monday – Indoor PE
- Thursday – Indoor PE
Year 1
- Tuesday – Outdoor PE
- Thursday – Outdoor PE
Year 2
- Wednesday – Outdoor PE
- Friday – Indoor PE
Year 3
- All classes – Fridays – Outdoor PE
- 3SG – Tuesday – Indoor PE
- 3D – Wednesday – Indoor PE
- 3P – Thursday – Indoor PE
Year 4
- All classes – Monday – Outdoor PE
- 4SB – Wednesday – Indoor PE
- 4C – Thursday – Indoor PE
- 4PR – Friday – Indoor PE
Year 5
- Tuesdays – Outdoor PE
- Wednesdays – Indoor PE
Year 6
- Monday – Indoor PE
- Wednesdays – Outdoor PE

After School Clubs

When do clubs start? Clubs started last week. You will have received an email to confirm your place in club.

Day	Club	Pick up time	Pick up place
Monday	Forest School	4:45	2B
	Chess Club	4:00	6B
	KS2 Choir	4:15	Small Hall
	Board Games Club	4:00	1TM
	Lego Coding Club	4:10	6C
	KS2 Girls’ Football	4:10	3P
Tuesday	Art Club	4:10	2CL
	Art/Craft Club	4:10	4PR
	Calm Club Yrs 5&6	4:00	3SG
	Recorders Club	4:00	3D
	Dance Live	4:10	Small Hall
Wednesday	Cookery Club	4:10	Office
	Multi-Skills	4:10	Small Hall
	Calm Club Yrs 3&4	4:00	3SG
Thursday	Photography Club	4:10	5P
	Scratch Coding Club	4:00	5DS
Friday	Netball	4:10	Small Hall
	Year 1 & 2 Choir	4:00	1TM

Music Info
Full School Calendar
Information - breakfast and afterschool clubs, uniform etc
- Breakfast Club – just show up – details here.
- SCL after-school club – click here for full details.
- Uniform – click here for details, including Skoolkit ordering
- School bags – can be ordered here
- Absence – Please report absences via phone or email here by 9am. If you need to request a future absence, please use this form.
- Are you eligible for Free School Meals and further funding for the school? Check online here.
Foodbank Support

In worship this week…

Music of the Week

Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy from The Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky (1840 – 1893)

Tchaikovsky was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. Lots of his music has been used in ballets. This piece of music is from The Nutcracker which is all about a nutcracker that comes alive on Christmas Eve.

Being a parent is tough!

Online Parenting Courses

Parental control guides

Community News

Opportunities to work in education

Regular Notices

Keep Calm and Carry On

Dear Parents and Carers,

After a superb week at Osmington Bay where the children were just fantastic in all respects, we have come back to the classroom with great curiosity to learn more about our topic of ‘Keep Calm and Carry On.’

We had a lovely visit from Mr Stiles this morning where the children listened intently to his talks about living through the Second World War as a young boy. They were shown so many artefacts from the war as well as rationed food items for the children to discover just how little adults and children got to eat for a week in the wartime. They were also allowed to pick up and ask questions about about gas masks, including special ones for babies, and shrapnel and German bullets collected by Mr Stiles.

Our learning about WW2 will be deepened with two further events for your children to experience: the baking of a Woolton pie and Evacuation Day. Children will bake a Woolton pie in groups from November 25th to December 2nd. They will bring a letter home this week which will let you know what day they are cooking and the ingredients they need to bring in for their group. Evacuation Day will be held on Friday 6th December and a letter to explain this day is attached. Please do not hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions.

Our PE days for this half term are Mondays and Wednesdays.

We are looking forward to a great half term of learning and the excitement that Christmas brings. Thank you for having such wonderful children who were such lovely company on our residential trip.

Best wishes,

The Year 6 Term

Evacuation Day email 2024