On Thursday afternoon, our school community gathered in our church as students in Grades 5 through 8 participated in the Living Rosary prayer service; a beloved St. Mark tradition in honor of our Lady who is celebrated in the month of October. Each decade of the Rosary was announced before students lit their candles and recited the coinciding prayer. Our students did an exceptional job. It was a beautiful, solemn, and reverent ceremony that reminds us all that we are grounded in and connected to each other in our shared faith and devotion to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I'd like to express sincere gratitude to our faculty and parent volunteers who helped us to make this truly cherished tradition possible.

Looking ahead, progress or skills reports will be issued to families of students in grades 1 thru 8 next week. I encourage all parents to contact your child's teacher if you feel your child is in need of extra academic help. Each classroom teacher (K through 8) has designated 1 day in the week for "academic extra help" office hours for 1 hour after school.

Finally, there are many fun and exciting traditions and fundraisers scheduled for October. Our Home School Association leadership and event chairpersons are working together to ensure these events can be held, some with modifications, for the safety of all. Be sure to stay up to date on events like the Cut-A-Thon, Monster Mash, Trunk-or-Treat, Snack Shop, Yankee Candle Fundraiser, and pie fundraiser by frequently checking our social media pages, Home School Association email updates, and school website. If you do not use social media, our school Facebook page feed can be viewed from our school website www.stmarkschool.org

As a reminder, The State of Connecticut Department of Public Health advises families continue to follow the CDC’s guidance for travel. Any family traveling outside of Connecticut for a period of 24hrs or longer will be asked to follow

a quarantine period of 10 days without a test. A family may choose a COVID test on day 3-5 of the quarantine period. A student may return to in-person instruction on day 8 after quarantining for a period of 7 days with a negative test result.

Please click here to read the Connecticut COVID-19 travel guidance.

The Diocese of Bridgeport Catholic Schools and all diocesan entities, have active marketing programs. Students and their work may appear in diocesan newsletters, newspapers, brochures, videos, websites, and official social media pages as well as other promotional material. Such productions may be used for educational or marketing purposes and may be copied or copyrighted with the diocese retaining all rights.

Parents and guardians reserve the right to object to the use of their child’s image by completing this form no later than Friday, October 15, 2021, and returning it directly to your school.

Join me in welcoming Ms. Ashley Skipp, Catapult Social Worker to St. Mark School. Ms. Ashley is a graduate of Southern Connecticut State University where she earned a Bachelor's Degree in Social Worker. She went on to graduate from Fordham University, earning a Master's Degree in Social Work.

Ms. Ashley's experience as a social worker began with working with children and families for the State of CT. She transitioned to school social work and has been blessed being a school social worker in Catholic Schools for the past 2 years in a PreK-8 setting. 

As a school social worker at St. Mark School, Ms. Ashely will be working with K-8 students on self-esteem, self-regulation, and advocating for the students & families of St. Mark in regard to academic supports and services, as well as providing community resources.

Ms. Ashely looks forward to joining the team and bringing her expertise and Catholic School experience to provide support to the families of St. Mark!

Each week, we will be featuring exciting and creative things happening in a chosen classroom. This week, we highlight our Grade 8 students. In math this week, the Class of 2022 prepared for their first Unit Test of the year.

Our 8th Grade students led our school community in our traditional Living Rosary prayer service on Thursday.

Using Second Step Social/Emotional curriculum program, Grade 8 students used their time for self-reflection. They identified aspects of their idenity that that is most important to them including their interests, values, abilities, culture, and personality.