22nd July 2026 Newsletter – Have a wonderful Summer!

A few notes from Mr Applegate

  • What an brilliant end of year worship we had today. So much fun, tears and talent.
  • We had 407 responses to our end of year survey – you can see the results here (and well done to Puffins with 28/30 responses by Tues 12pm!)
  • Thank you so much for your support across the year. We are so grateful for the strong sense of community, and the kindness and generosity shown. As we sang this morning, “Together we’re stronger.”
  • We return again on Thursday 3rd September for children. We look forward to welcoming our new Year R children and their families into our community.

Have a great summer! Charles.

Last minute Must-Dos

  • Log into Arbor or email for help if you can’t. You need this for any school payments.
  • If you will be using a Childcare Payment scheme for Breakfast Club or Lions, please complete this form.
  • Need to apply for Free School Meals or check for additional Pupil Premium funding? Click here for an instant response.

Agents of Change Home Challenges

Following your feedback, we’ll be moving this system to Google Classroms from September. Easier tracking, submitting and managing!

Arbor – A significant change for school payments

 Where are we up to? So far…
  • we have started taking bookings for Lions sessions,
  • we have set up the Year 4 Residential trip (for current Year 3 parents to start making payments),
  • we have set up accounts for you to start topping up your Meal accounts and Breakfast Club accounts,
  • we have asked you to clear any debts before July 31st
  • we have advised you that you can continue to pay for the Year 6 Residential (March 2027) via Scopay until the deadline – 
  • we have advised you that all credits or debits will be carried across from Scopay to Arbor.
From August 1st…
  • we will start to move across all leftover monies and debts to the corresponding Arbor accounts.
What’s next? From September…
  • you will need to have money in your Meals account to pay for school dinners (KS2 only unless they are FSMs). NB: You do not need to set up any Meal Preferences, so please ignore this on Arbor.
  • you will need to have money in your Breakfast Club account if you are going to be using this wraparound care provision.  You DO NOT need to book for this.  Just turn up and you’ll be charged accordingly.
  • if your child will be learning to play a musical instrument with HMS (not guitar or ukulele with Mr Maycock) we will set up an invoice for you to start paying towards the fees.  This will hopefully be set up over the summer. You can add money for this by topping up the Music Tuition account. 
  • if your child is allocated a space on a teacher/LSA – led club, you will see this listed under Activities>Clubs. This will happen over the summer. You will need to pay for the club.
  • if your child is going on a School Trip, you will see this listed under Activities>Trips. You will need to give consent for the trip and pay. We will email you to let you know when you need to do this.
Watch Out!

If you want to book onto Lions or to see which sessions you have booked, please make sure you look in Activities>Clubs.  Some parents have been confused and have been looking under the Accounts section which will only show you when you have made payments.

St Mark’s Wraparound Care and Clubs

Breakfast Club 8:00-8:30am

In September, the arrangements for Breakfast Club will remain the same.  Charges will be arranged after your child attends a session and you do not need to book your child’s place in advance.  You are able to add a Top Up amount to your account for funds to be taken from.  Please see here for further details.

Lions 3:20 -6pm

As you know, we’re excited to be launching our very own provision for Afterschool Care from September. Click here to see details.

Standard Teacher and LSA Led Clubs 3:20-4:10pm

You will receive information about club start times and beginning and ending dates via email.  Please take care to add this information to your diaries.  Club pick up location is via the KS1 gate (along Woodbury Road).  Please let grandparents know as we often find they are unaware of the pickup location.

Dance Live, Forest School, Football, Orchestra and Choir/Young Voices Clubs

These clubs often follow a different schedule and have different finishing times and pick up locations.  Please look very carefully at the information you will be sent.

Ordering School Bags

A reminder that our drawstring school bags should be purchased here. 

Calendar Dates

Remember, our school calendar is here.

The Warren – Summer Sessions

See Community section below for weekly session overviews.

⭐ St Mark’s Shout Outs ⭐

Year 3 have been growing a £1 for our Fairtrade Agents of Change project. 
Avery in 3D has said she is continuing to sell her artwork to raise money for coeliacs and diabetes charities.  Her brother is Phoenix and has diabetes and Avery has coeliacs disease.  She has been so inspired with our grow the pound she wanted to do this for these charities.  What a fabulous thing to do! Well done Avery and Phoenix!

The Wellbeing Champions and Eco Warriors came together to plant wildflower seeds in our wildflower garden area, helping to promote wildlife, support the environment, and enhance wellbeing by creating a beautiful natural space for everyone to enjoy. These seeds were gifted by Evie’s dad which we have been so delighted to received.

FOSM SAVE THE DATE!

Thank you all so much for your support at our FOSM events this year.  We have had lots of fun and raised funds to enrich the education of all the children. Please see attached a poster for the postponed colour run – please save the date! Ticket information, more details and prices will be  announced in September.

School Dates, Lunches, and Clubs

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

 

Helpful Information

In worship this week…

Music of the Week

NHS Courses and Videos for Parents

Witherslack Group Parent Support Webinars

Community News

Dashwood

Regular Notices

Latest Posts