St Mark’s Community School was established in 1977 to provide a comprehensive co-educational and multi-denominational education for the young people of the area, an area which has experienced significant change, particularly in the last decade. The school has successfully embraced these changes – both the challenges and the opportunities. St Mark’s caters for the full range of abilities and its culture of care has been officially acknowledged as one of the school’s core strengths. It has a proud tradition of inclusiveness, valuing the many different cultures from which its student population of over 850 is drawn. Over 50 languages are spoken in the school. St Mark’s has been recognised as a Restorative Community, promoting pro-active strategies for the fostering of positive relationships.
In recent years St Mark’s has been at the forefront of educational developments in the country. A pilot school for Project Maths and a network school for Junior Cycle reform, St Mark’s is currently piloting Junior Cycle short courses in Coding and in Polish as a Heritage Language. St Mark's was also one of the schools selected for the NCCA's recent Senior Cycle Review consultation. Teachers and students from St Mark’s have been involved in a wide range of learning initiatives, including Lesson Study, Lego League Robotics, Bridge 21, TL 21 , TA 21, Spatial Awareness and Computational Thinking research programmes. The school has hosted KeyCoNet delegations. Through the EU’s Comenius programme, St Mark’s developed and implemented a two year Environment & Energy project with schools from Denmark, Austria and Spain. Other programmes and initiatives in which the school is actively involved include Green Schools, Health Promoting Schools, Business in the Community, Young Social Innovators and College for Every Student (CFES) for which it has been awarded the title ‘School of Distinction’.
The school’s commitment to the promotion of the Irish language has resulted in a number of awards including the prestigious Gaelbhrathach. St Mark’s has also won an EU European Languages award (ELLA) for its Multilingual Classrooms project. Drama, music and sports are other areas of school life where there is a strong tradition in St Mark’s, supported by the substantial voluntary contribution made by the staff to extra-curricular activities.
St Mark’s has a long and successful association with Trinity College, through the Trinity Access Programme, and the school also has strong links with TU Dublin – Tallaght.