St Mark's CofE Primary School

February 14, 2025

14 February 2025 – Half-term Newsletter

Don’t forget….

What a week! Guitar performances, Year 5/6 Netball match, Year 3/4 Football match, Year R visited the farm, Year 1 held a toy museum, Year 5 Mad Hair Day for various charities, 6 Hour Screen-Free Challenge …. #ProudOfOurPupils #AgentsOfChange
Well done to Freddy in Year 1 who suggested the money raised at the Toy Museum went to buy toys for children in Basingstoke, via the Spotlight Centre 🥰
Check our updated Spring 2 PE days and Forest School days below.
Have a great half-term break. We look forward to seeing you on 24th Feb for the second half of the school year.

Mr Applegate 🙂

This Week's Homework & Learning

Listed here for all Yr1-6 children.

Click here

Guitar and Ukulele Concert

The parents, siblings and friends of Mr Maycock’s pupils were treated to a wonderful performance this week. You all played brilliantly! Well done to everyone and thank you Mr Maycock. Here’s a snippet of what we heard.

00:00

02:05

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Help us to improve drainage, lighting and more!

Thank you for your support of our capital donations, essential for maintaining our school site. Complete this form or find out more here.

When are Parents’ Evenings?

Year R & Year 6 – Tues 4th and Weds 5th March (booking already available)

Years 1-5 – Weds 23rd and Weds 30th April

THANK YOU SO MUCH! 🥰

Thank you for your generous donations last Friday. You helped to raise an incredible £617.38 for us to create a Reflection Garden which will help to support the mental wellbeing of our children.

SCL Tuesday Pick-Up Arrangements

SCL After School Club will be located in the Small Hall each Tuesday until 11th March. On these days, please go to the blue Dandelions gate to pick up – there will be a sign displayed with a mobile number to call to alert the staff that you have arrived. Thank you.

Please can you help?

The Year R Team are developing their outdoor provision. We are looking for some items which you may have at home and be able to donate to us. The following items are what we are hoping for:

If you can help, please contact the year R team at yearr@stmarksce.org.uk

Thank you so much.

Save the Date: World Book Day Friday 7th March

We will be celebrating World Book Day 2025 on Friday 7th March! (note this date is a day after the official world book day).

This year, we are again celebrating World Book Day with lots of fun at school. Children will have the opportunity to dress up, enjoy a special worship, swap a book, share a story and more…..

Dress Up: What can children come as?

We are asking children to come either as their favourite book character or as an exciting word or adjective!

Our aim is to keep things easy and as cheap as possible, but still have lots of fun! There are dozens of easy costume ideas available online for vocabulary costumes like those above. If your child would prefer to be a book character, you could try one of these easy ideas below:

Reminder - Litter Pick Feb 21st Beggarwood Park

St Mark’s Football and Netball Teams

We’re so proud of the enthusiasm and resilience displayed by our fabulous sports team members. You might not have won this time but your determination and excellent attitudes were commendable. Well done everyone!

Well done girls! 🎉

Elsie, Amelia and Evie all belong to Wolverines Cheerleading Club. They had their first ever competition at the weekend and came 2nd out of 8 teams. Well done Superstars!

Art Club Love!

🏅Well done Leo!🏅

Leo took part in a wheelchair tennis competition in Sheffield. He played 4 matches in total and won 3 of them. Just amazing!

🏅Well done Gracie!🏅

You did so well in your trampolining competition!

🏅Well done Harvey!🏅

You came 1ST in a cross country running competition!

🌟 Wonderful Worry Monsters 🌟

The children from Mrs Ford’s Mindfulness Club made some incredible ‘worry monsters’ with the help of our Wellbeing Champions – Emily and Grace, and Miss Maggs too!!

🐔 Book a Farm visit here 🐰
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 in our School Office.

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?
_Year R – Newsletter Spring 1 2025.pdf

Year 1 – A Toy’s Story – Curriculum Leaflet.pdf

Year 2 – Healthy Me Happy Me – Curriculum Leaflet.pdf

Year 3 – From Bean to Bar – Curriculum Leaflet.pdf

Year 4 – Spring 1 Exploring the UK – Curriculum Leaflet.pdf

Year 5 – Spring 1 Terrible Tudors – Curriculum Leaflet.pdf

Year 6 – Spring 1 Frozen Kingdoms – Curriculum Leaflet.pdf
Illness - should I keep my child off school?

Supporting Parents

The School Nurse Team are offering a clinic on Tuesday 4th March to be held at St Mark’s to support parenting challenges, eating, sleeping and toileting issues.

An email will follow next week with more information and details of how to book a slot.

⭐ 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%.

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

FOSM Events
Meals
***NEW Spring 2 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

Monday – Outdoor PE

Tuesday 25^th February ONLY – PE

Year 2

Wednesday – Indoor PE

Friday – Outdoor PE

Year 3

Tuesday – Outdoor PE

Friday – Indoor PE

Year 4

Monday – Outdoor PE

Friday – Indoor PE

Year 5

Tuesday – Outdoor PE

Friday 28^th February ONLY – PE

Year 6

Thursday – Outdoor PE

Friday – Outdoor PE
***NEW Spring 2 Forest School Days
Forest School from 3rd March for 5 weeks

Year 1

1BM – Tuesday pm

1M – Wednesday pm

1TM– Thursday pm

Year 5

5E – Wednesday am

5P – Thursday am

5DS–

Friday 7th March am

Friday 14th March am

Tuesday 18th March am

Friday 28th March am

Tuesday 1st April am
After School Clubs
Clubs List Spring Term 2025

When do clubs restart after half term?

Clubs will restart straight away after half term.
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

Swan Lake: Tchaikovsky

Tchaikovsky was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. Lots of his music has been used in ballets.

Being a parent is tough!

Parent Counselling Sessions

Your child’s mental health…

Understanding your child: from toddler to teenager
Understanding your child’s mental health and wellbeing
Understanding the impact of the pandemic on your child
Moving up to secondary school for children with additional needs
Understanding your own trauma

Click here for free online training

Online Parenting Courses

Parental control guides

Community News

Regular Notices

Going to be absent?

We’ve moved our absence request form online. This is for absence requests such as holidays, weddings, funeral, special events, and more. You don’t need to use this form for sickness or self-isolation (but please email/phone the office if they are unwell).