Dear Parents and Friends,

Welcome to Highcliffe St Mark Primary School, a Church Of England Foundation School. Together with an enthusiastic, creative and committed staff team, I look forward to working in close partnership with you in order to provide the best possible education for your children.

In our school, our ethos, our actions and our thoughts are underpinned by our core Christian Values of respect, courage and compassion. These golden threads permeate our teaching, our policies and the way that we behave towards each other. We learn how Jesus's teachings and Bible stories continuously reflect these values and they guide us in our responses to each other and the choices that we make. Our children learn that these values are not just about attitudes and beliefs about others but are also important for your own sense of self-worth. 

We aim to give children the skills and knowledge they need to be confident, independent and curious learners. We place great value on the development of children as individuals who will become courageous advocates both for their local community and as global neighbours. We want to give our children a rich diet of learning experiences in order to develop happy, ambitious, well-rounded individuals who are prepared for the next stage in their education both academically and socially. Our staff nurture positive mindsets and are keen to promote children’s personal development, well-being and self-esteem.

We encourage our children to appreciate and take responsibility for God’s creation through our Eco Schools ethos and are proud holders of an Eco Schools Green Flag Award.

We take a thematic approach to learning where children are given opportunities to makes links across the curriculum. Children are able to apply their understanding and skills through exciting and interesting real life experience which are often linked to events which are happening locally, nationally and globally. We see our school as a place of safety to make sense of the world around them. We are very fortunate to have fantastic learning environments for our children including specialist classrooms for music and drama, cookery and computing. We also have fabulous school grounds which include a wild life area, a wildflower meadow a pond and field areas and are used as a classroom without walls.

We work closely with our feeder preschools and our local secondary school Highcliffe School to ensure transition into and after our school is strong and a positive experience.

We believe that children make good progress in our school and leave us well prepared for their next stage in education. We are proud of the positive feedback that we receive from secondary school colleagues together with the proven track record that our pupils go on to achieve well in their GCSEs and A levels.

We are proud to hold the Eco Schools Green Flag, Christian Aid Global Neighbours, United Against Bullying Award, Soundstorm Music Mark and a Platinum Schools Games Award. 

We look forward to meeting you and your children and to getting to know you as part of our school community.

For more information please read our Vision statement in 'About us'.

Yours truly,

Claire Barker                                  Lisa Caola

Headteacher                                  Chair of Governors