Meet the Principal
Welcome to the St. Mark’s Academy website and community. I hope that the website gives just
a flavour of what we offer to our young people.
Welcome to St. Mark’s Academy website – I hope that it gives you a flavour of the academy. The only way that you get a really good picture of what makes us tick is to visit and you are welcome to do so at any time.
I’m writing this in September 2012 and am now just starting my third year as the Principal of St. Mark’s. The last two years have flashed by but it is amazing how much has been achieved here and also how much potential there still is for further improvement.
Examination results have shown a really pleasing improvement and this year, despite the problems with the English GCSE, the results achieved have again shown a leap forwards – from 43% to 56%. We are likely now to have results that match the national average. We are no longer the “poor relation” in Merton and are shooting up the local league table. I think that as a result the reputation of the academy is improving and we can now see more people choosing the academy for their children.
We have also made huge progress in the way that we do things and we have been working hard with young people, staff and the whole community to embed our core values of Love, Hope and Trust into everything we do. Our partnership with the Church is key to this and I hope that all can now really feel the benefits of being within a faith based community.
I want young people to enjoy coming to school and to enjoy learning and I believe that if they do so then they will learn better and faster. The other three key words in the academy this year are, Enjoy, Engage and Challenge. We are aiming for all of our lessons to have these three qualities and see them as essential to good and outstanding teaching.
This year we have also decide that we needed to smarten up the academy and are focussing on uniform and the way that students present themselves – we know that this is really important. Please help us by ensuring that your child’s uniform is correct and that they look smart when they leave for school and please emphasise that mobiles and other gadgets are not allowed to be seen at all in the academy. I have to say – this has been brilliant so far this year and has made a huge impact on learning.
If you have any concerns then please contact me – my email address is cmallaband@stmarksacademy.org.uk . I am always happy to meet with parents and am happy to meet early in the morning or in the evening if that is helpful. In particular I put aside Wednesday evenings for late meetings with parents.
I hope that you feel that St. Mark’s is improving and offering your child a good education.
Chris Mallaband
Academy Principal
