Christmas Party

Community Party at St Mark’s School

On Friday 6 December, students and staff at St Mark’s School, once again played host to the local senior citizens of Larkhall at their Annual Community Christmas Party. For many, the party this year was particularly special as the annual event reached its 44th year. Since the event began in 1969, St Mark’s School have played host to in excess of 5000 local residents by providing refreshments, entertainment, free raffles and a ‘surprise’ visit from Father Christmas. This year, helping them to celebrate were nearly 100 Senior Citizens from Larkhall and the surrounding area.

“Everyone in the school gets involved at some level whether it’s raising money, catering, singing or serving guests. We are so lucky to be in the heart of such a warm community and are just so thrilled to be able to welcome so many local residents to St Mark’s School for the past 44 years,” said Head of School, Chris Ryan.

This year, for the first time, students of St Mark’s School were joined by children from St Saviour’s Junior School, to help provide the afternoon’s entertainment.

“It was wonderful to welcome the children of St Saviour’s School to St Mark’s to share in the festivities and we hope will continue for many years to come,” he said.

Organiser of the event and Head of Year 7 at St Mark’s, Michele Hills, said, “We could not continue such a tradition for 44 years without the support of our students, staff and local business community who have been incredibly kind in their donations.”

Larkhall and Fairfield Park businesses once again helped to make the festivities go off in style, donating raffle prizes and a Christmas gift for everyone attending, proving that the spirit of Christmas can survive.

“Once again, our local businesses rallied around to help provide the food, presents and raffle prizes. We would like to thank them for their generous support.”

“This event is a special occasion for our School as it is an opportunity for us to work with our community, for our community. Everyone gets a great deal of enjoyment from the event as they know and appreciate how important it is to our community and the local residents. Our students and staff work really hard to make sure that every element is just perfect from the wrapping of Christmas presents to the table decorations.”

“The whole event was amazing,” said one guest. “St Mark’s School is a credit to its community. Everyone has worked really hard and we have had a fantastic afternoon here!”