Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.

• Meet the Author!

  Tue 23 Apr 2024 Mrs Hagan

  This afternoon Years 3-5 had the great opportunity to listen to Justyn Edwards: author of The Great Fox series. Justyn was extremely interesting and inspiring showing us magic tricks that inspired him to write the series as well as explaining what life as an author is like, how long it takes to write books and so on!

  All of the children are very excited to read his first novel The Great Fox Illusionist!

   

  "I loved the magic tricks!" Benny, Year 3

  "I love how much effort he put into his books" Hanna, Year 4 

  "I liked how he read the start of the book to us and it left us on a cliffhanger!" Ava, Year 4

   

  Sapphires really want to read the first book and so we have ordered it for our class read!

   

  

• Pause Day and Easter Service 2024

  Wed 27 Mar 2024 Mrs Smith

  Today St Mark's held a very special Pause Day which included our Easter Service. We begun the day with reflective activities set up in the hall, focusing on please, thank you and sorry. Each class took turns to enjoy the activities and then spend time in their classrooms focusing on the journeys of the Easter story. Our thanks go to Rev Stephen Mourant and one of our governors, Mrs Kahkonen who both joined us for the morning and later at the church for the beautiful service. This year Sapphire Class performed the folktale of the Three Trees supported by Ruby, Emerald and Diamond Class choirs. The children sang beautifully and created a powerful image of God's plan for everyone. 

  For photographs and more information please visit our church page by clicking here.

   

  

• Barnaby Bear at the Anvil

  Tue 12 Mar 2024 Mrs Smith

  The Infants enjoyed a wonderful musical afternoon watching a special performance of Barnaby Bear's Adventures at Sea, in the Anvil at Basingstoke. It was a brilliant opportunity for the children to experience a live orchestra and gain first hand knowledge of the theatre. We loved singing along to the songs and joining in with the actions. 

  A big thank you to the PTA for funding this exciting trip!

  

• World Book Day 2024

  Thu 07 Mar 2024 Mrs Smith

  St Mark's celebrated World Book Day by coming to school in our pyjamas and bringing our favourite book. In the afternoon the Juniors enjoyed listening to Miss Ellis share some "revolting" rhymes and the infants swapped classes to share a selection of picture books. All the children were excited to take home their book token which can be swapped for a World Book Day book or put towards buying another book. Netball Club even decided to play in the pyjamas after school! What a great end to World Book Day!

  

• Pancake Challenge

  Fri 23 Feb 2024 Mrs Smith

  During worship today the Spirituality Team celebrated all the entries to their Pancake Topping Challenge held during half term! Each child received a beautifully hand drawn certificate. Well done St Mark's there were some fantastic pancake toppings and a special way to start the period of Lent in the run up to Easter.

  

• World Thinking Day and Founder's Day

  Thu 22 Feb 2024 Miss Jackson

  Today 14 of our children came to school in their Rainbow, Squirrel, Brownie, Beaver and Cub uniforms to celebrate World Thinking Day and Founder's Day. This is a day that members of Girlguiding and Scouting worldwide celebrate the friendships they have around the world and the adventures they have had because of these organisations. It was fantastic to see their colourful and smart uniforms.

  

• Spirituality Team lead a Lent Collective Worship

  Fri 09 Feb 2024 Mrs Smith

  The Spirituality Team lead a wonderful collective worship for the whole school in preparation for the start of Lent. They focused on the recipe for pancakes and how this can be thought of as a recipe for life, with the children adding qualities such as kindness, gentleness, sharing and love into the bowl. The team have set the school a challenge to create interesting pancake toppings on Shrove Tuesday, which this year falls during half term. All entries will receive a certificate! These will be shared when we return to school. What an exciting way to begin the season of Lent!

  

• Astronomy Evening

  Wed 17 Jan 2024 Miss Jackson

  This evening, four of our Year 5 children and their parents attended an Ogden Trust Astronomy Night at Salesian College. There were 100 students at the event from the 10 Farnborough partnership schools.

   

  The children started the evening in the pop-up planetarium where they went on a journey into outer space, looking closely at images of the sun, planets and stars. The ceiling of the planetarium then transformed into the night sky and the guide pointed out different constellations. The next activity was in a science lab where the children ordered planet fact cards by different criteria, for example size. Then they designed their own planet on a ball. Finally they went outside to stargaze using the telescopes provided by the Cody Observatory. The clouds were starting to clear and they were able to see Jupiter and three of its moons through a telescope. They also saw our moon in detail through another telescope.

   

  The children had a fantastic time and were proud representatives of St Mark’s!

  

• Christmas Lunch

  Fri 15 Dec 2023

  The whole school enjoyed a delicious Christmas lunch together.

   

  Merry Christmas everyone!

  

• Carols around the camp fire

  Thu 14 Dec 2023

  A wonderful end of term community event, and first for St Mark's - carols around the campfire. What a delightful way to end the term in festive spirit together. 

  It's certainly one to repeat!