Friday 15th March 2019 www.st-marks.ealing.sch.uk - St Mark's Primary School

Friday 15th March 2019
        www.st-marks.ealing.sch.uk

Dear Parents and Carers,

As part of our school wide focus on reading we celebrated World Book Day in style with some amazing
costumes, visiting author Frances Liardet working with Year 6 and the publication of our school story,
written by every class in the school. Our Governors have spent the morning focussing on reading and
observed the whole class teaching of reading in classes across the school, as well as reading with indi-
vidual pupils. They were very impressed with the way in which children engaged in their learning and the
clarity of explanation from teachers. The children were able to discuss the text making inferences from
what they had read and learning the meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary.

Columbus class and Darwin class showcased their learning with amazing
confidence during their class assemblies. Darwin class had written their own
version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears and explained their learning about
different materials using precise, scientific language.

As part of our learning, we celebrated International Women's Day with an as-
sembly about parity between men and women and talked about the
mindset of successful women and their contributions to society. We have also
been learning about charity and the impact that charities can have on improv-
ing the lives of people both in this country and around the world. Today we
have held our own Charity Day with classes choosing which charity they want-
ed to raise money for.

As part of our travel plan, senior leaders have met with Dr Freeman, Regulatory Services Officer from the
Planning Enforcement and Environment Team Ealing Council to discuss air quality around the school.
We will be receiving a pollution monitoring tube shortly and over the course of the year will be able to
monitor the quality of the air around the school. We discussed the possibility of receiving some funding to
carry out an air quality audit that will give recommendations to the school. We will be appointing travel
ambassadors from children within the school, who will be developing an action plan to encourage sus-
tainable travel, including walking to school, ways to combat pollution and further scooter and pedestrian
training opportunities. Our ambassadors will be talking to their classmates and parents about ways in
which members of the school community can contribute to reducing pollution.

There has been a great deal in the media about a range of social media platforms and their use by chil-
dren and young people. We would like to keep you informed of the ways in which you can keep your chil-
dren safe through our safer internet presentation on 21st March at 6pm in the school hall. This presenta-
tion is for adults only and we request that children do not attend.

Have a restful weekend.

Sophie Liardet
Head teacher

PSA Comedy Night Friday 22nd March 2019

Buy your Comedy Night tickets now!
What better way to raise money for the school than a night of laughter
from award-winning comedians? Buy £10 tickets now for the Comedy
Night which is happening next Friday 22nd March. This is a charity
event so invite your friends and neighbours.

Find us in the playground or email StMarksPSA@gmail.com.

Music News
It’s been a busy time for music recently.
Year 3 have been busy Gamelaning with our workshop leader Aris. They are preparing to perform to the
whole school on Tuesday. We asked parents for a voluntary contribution of £5 per child to help us run
this amazing five day course which includes puppet making, music and storytelling.

Last Wednesday was National Sing Up Day. Hundreds of schools all around the UK and in other parts of
the world found time to sing a song called ‘One moment, one people’ which had been especially com-
posed for the occasion. At St Mark’s we had a special singing assembly for Years 1-6. They sang bril-
liantly. Leila, Henry and Ikram, from Year 6 bravely sang the last line as a solo and KS1 used the actions
really well to help remember the lyrics.

Year 4 have been composing chord sequences to play on the ukulele

The St Mark’s everything band has welcomed a new conductor, Ms Darcy, from Ealing music service,
who is also now teaching woodwind at St Mark’s. Band rehearsals are on Thursday after school until
4.30pm. If you have lessons on a musical instrument either in, or outside school, and would like to join
please see Mrs Keating.

Instrumental lessons (violin Yrs. 1-6, flute Yrs. 2-6, clarinet Yrs. 3-6 or alto saxophone Yrs. 5-6) and take
place during the school day. Please email the school if you would like your child to be placed on a waiting
list. The cost is currently £72 per term for ten lessons.

Year 5 will be taking part in Samba drumming workshops on Tuesday 2 April. We have asked for a vol-
untary contribution of £2 per child to help us run these exciting workshops.
Choir 2 is now rehearsing on Wednesday lunchtimes (Yrs4-6). Children in the choir are allowed to have
their lunch at 12.15pm.
Year 2 are learning songs for a performance in May, further information will be given out in the near fu-
ture. Mrs Keating Music teacher

World Book Day at St Mark’s
World Book Day #shareabook went down with great success. The children loved the parents coming in to share
their own favourite stories with the classes and the whole school story that was written turned out to be an epic
journey for the characters created by EYFS. Please let Miss Booth know if you would like a copy for the price of £1.
We have also created a display with #shelfies. Thank you for helping the children with their creative and wonder-
ful costumes. We can't wait for the next World Book Day to be even bigger and better!

SPORT
We had a great day at the Featherstone Basketball
Tournament. We took two teams and both participated
very well in a competition where the standard was very
high. It came down to one match for the A team, they
needed to win to qualify for the semi-final but came away
with a draw.
The B team qualified for the final stages of their
competition and we were very pleased when they
came 3rd.
Thank you to the PSA who pay for our mini buses
to make it possible for us to attend these events and for
parents who accompany us. Mr Briley

Liliana started ballet when she was 2 years old.    Gold Star Awards
She is very passionate about it. She's practicing   Year 6
once a week at ballet school and every spare mo-    Sharman - Sylvie, Libby, Yahye & Abbas
ment at home. Recently                              Gagarin - Annie, Ryan, Oliwia & Esma
she was awarded Merit on                            Year 5
                                                    Earhart - Nancy, Maks, Abdullahi & Shan-
                                                    thos
                                                    Columbus - Noor, Poppy, Daniel & Joel
                                                    Year 4
                                                    Beethoven - Janussa, Olivia, Ambrose & Sonia
                                                    Fitzgerald - Dontae, Zoe, Layla & Laurie
                                                    Year 3
                                                    Emidy - Estir & Adam
                                                    Glennie - Guru & Ashley
                                                    Year 2
                                                    Hawking - Isobelle, Luca & Dara
                                                    Lovelace - Arjun, Jakub I & Gui
                                                    Anning— Sahib S,Florence & Romilly
                                                    Year 1
RAD ( Royal Academy of                              Darwin - Bonham, Mohamad & Sofia
Dance) Entry Level - Pri-                           Franklin - Matilda, Lexi & Esme

Diary dates
 March
21st                Year 1 trip to St Paul’s Cathedral
     st
21                  Safer Internet presentation school hall 6pm—7pm Parents only
22nd                Glennie Class Assembly
29th                Anning Class Assembly
April
5th                 Hawking Class Assembly
5th                 Last day of Spring term – Happy holidays
24th April          First day of Summer term – Welcome back
     th
30 April            Bike Event school playground – see last page of newsletter
May
2nd                 Visit from athlete sponsored fundraising event Sport
3rd                 Reception Classes - Scooter fit training in school
3rd                 Franklin Class Assembly
10th                Matisse Class Assembly
17th                Fitzgerald Class Assembly
21st                Happy Shoes day – Celebrating Walk to School Week
22nd                Kahlo Class Assembly *Wednesday as we are closed on Friday 24th May
Friday 24th         Training day – school closed to pupils Fit for Sport holiday camp open for bookings
27th - 31st         Half term holidays Fit for Sport holiday camp open for bookings
June
Save the dates - Sports days - mornings from 9am
Nursery and Reception 11th June
KS1 25th June
KS2 18th June