School celebrates 50 golden years

Staff and pupils at St Mark’s Catholic Primary School, Halewood have been celebrating their golden jubilee with some very special guests. The school invited scriptwriter Fred Lawless to attend their 50th anniversary assembly, alongside other past pupils, staff and parents. Headteacher, Richard Coakley said: “Each class did a short presentation outlining key events from each decade since the school was opened.

Fred spoke about his time in St Mark’s as one of the first pupils to attend when it opened and told us about the classroom and teacher who inspired him to write playscripts. He currently has his play ‘A Fistful of Collars’ on at the Royal Court and has written their Christmas play for the past seven years.

Katarina Johnson Thompson also visited the school a few weeks before, which was filmed on her BBC documentary ‘Faster, Higher, Stronger’ and recalled her love for athletics which began in St Mark’s. She won countless athletics medals and she recalled breaking the Liverpool Catholic Schools’ high jump record which had stood for 28 years whilst she was a Year 6 pupil at the school.