Dear Parents/Carers,

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for your patience, understanding and support throughout the last few months and especially this last week. We know it is an unsettling time for everyone but we take great comfort from the strength of our school community and to have witnessed our school values in action throughout this time. Throughout 2019/20, we have been gathering the views of our extended school community to identify what our school represents and under the scrutiny of our P6 pupils, we have commissioned the image above which we are delighted to launch today. There are so many elements of our school history and its presence in the community today – we see something new each time we look at it! We hope you love it as much as we do and we look forward to sharing how we develop it to be even more meaningful over the next year.

We know there are still lots of questions about August and at the moment, outwith the letter and communications you have already received this week, we do not have any more information to share with you. However, please be assured that as soon as we have more information, we will share it with you as soon as possible. In the background we have been preparing plans for the return to school, whatever that will look like. The health and safety of our school community is paramount and we are ready to act on the guidance issued by the Scottish Government when this is available.

A few weeks ago, we announced a relaxation of our school uniform as a temporary measure. We know lots of you like to be prepared and have already purchased these items. Please be assured that for session 2020/21, our temporary relaxed uniform will remain in place. If you would prefer to stick with more traditional uniform items, that is also okay. Outdoor learning will remain a key feature of our curriculum no matter what model of return is in place in August – our children and staff will be outside daily and should always come to school dressed for the weather and learning outdoors.

We have also had a number of questions about Breakfast Club and After School Clubs. At this time, we do not have this information and can’t confirm a start date for either of these facilities.

We were disappointed to have cancelled our residential trip to Ardentinny with our senior pupils. On behalf of the school and Renfrewshire Council, I’d like to apologise to those affected, for the delay in issuing a refund for your child’s school trip. It has been a complex process and school and council staff have worked incredibly hard to resolve matters to ensure refunds can be paid. All refunds should be made by the middle of July.

On a more positive note, we have now received confirmation from the Diocese with regard to the celebration of First Sacraments of Holy Communion and Confirmation. For those celebrations which were postponed in May 2020, both of these sacraments will now be celebrated in our local parish of St Margaret’s between September and November. We do not have a date for either of these as yet but will share it with you as soon as possible.

Once again, I would like to thank each and every one of our families for your commitment to our school community to ensure that St David’s is achieving the excellent standards we aspire to. The COVID-19 period has demonstrated respect and faith from our community on our digital platforms and allowed us to maintain our ethos, albeit virtually. It has been a pleasure, as always, to be a part of this special period in our school’s history where our value of Happiness has shone through.

 Our P7 pupils leave us today and move on to St Benedict’s where they will continue their learning journey however they will always be a part of our school community and we wish them the very best of luck and hope to hear from them all soon. We have also had the pleasure of meeting our new P1 pupils and families recently and we are excited to get to know them better next year. We look forward to welcoming you all back on Wednesday 12th August 2020. On behalf of all the staff here at St David’s, we would like to wish you all a wonderful, relaxing and safe summer.

Mrs Berry

We know that there is lots of discussion about education and schools in the media and recognise that this is a  time of uncertainty for everyone in our school community.

Please be assured that behind the scenes, we are working hard within local and national guidance to prepare recovery plans which will allow the safe return of pupils and staff to school.  You can read an update from the Director of Children’s Services, Steven Quinn, here.

When we have the answers and plans, we will share them with you as soon as possible. We appreciate your patience and support during this time and want you to know that the safety and wellbeing of our children and staff is, as always, paramount.

We will be in touch very soon to share plans to support our new Primary 1 pupils and our current Primary 7 pupils with transition support at the end of the month. We are really looking forward to seeing some familiar faces and some new ones too.

In the meantime, please remember that we are still here. Here to support the pupils on their learning journey and also to support our school community – if you need to get in touch you can do so via our email, social media channels, Seesaw and by replying to a text message.

You will have received a text today with a link to our Annual Parent/Carer Survey – you can also access it by clicking here.  The survey remains open until 6pm on the 11th June – your views are essential to our planning for next session and beyond, and we would really appreciate it if you could spare a few minutes to share these with us.