Please see latest copy of school newsletter. Click link below.
Category Archives: School Blog
Renfrewshire Council – ASN Review
An important update regarding the Review of Additional Support Needs (ASN) provision, which was put on hold earlier this year due to the Coronavirus pandemic, can be accessed by clicking the link below:
Interim school menu
Please see the link below for our current lunch menu:
Lunch Update w/c 7th September 2020
Please click on the image below to see the new lunch menu effective from Monday 7th September
“Can you really learn through play?”
“Can you really learn through play?”
FREE WEBINAR!
A webinar is a live, web-based conference.
During this time you can feel free to comment or ask questions
Thursday, September 24, 2020 at 8pm
Alistair Bryce Clegg
Alistair Bryce Clegg is passionate about inspiring children to reach their potential. He is well known in Education and is an author of many fantastic books to support teachers and practitioners develop the skills to support our learners.
If you would like to tune in to this FREE webinar click on the image below to signup:
*IMPORTANT INFORMATION* Launch of ParentsPortal for Annual Data Check
In support of Renfrewshire’s ambition to provide better communications between parents/carers and our schools, we are excited to launch Parentsportal.scot – an exciting new initiative which enables and creates a digital relationship between parents, pupils and schools.
The portal is designed to replace the ‘schoolbag run’, giving parents online access to a range of school-related services. At the heart of the system, is a secure online account through mygov.scot which is referred to as a ‘My Account’. This is already used in over half of Renfrewshire schools enabling parents to make payments online.
The first phase of the service will introduce basic information about your school and will allow you to link to your child and update your own, as well as your child’s details as part of the Annual Data Check process, that is now managed electronically.
As the portal develops, we look forward to seeing more services introduced in the coming months.
On signing up to the portal, you will be able to link to your child and gain access to the services which are currently available. Please note this service is only available to Primary and Secondary children. In order to link to your child, the data you provide during the sign up process must match the most up-to-date data that your child’s school holds.
Click on the link below to get started:
http://www.renfrewshire.gov.uk/schools/parentsportal
A step-by-step guide can also be accessed by clicking the image below:
Updates from School Counsellor & Negative Consent Forms for Place2Talk Service
Hello St. David’s Families,
Welcome back! It has been so wonderful seeing you all at the morning drop off and finally having your kiddos back in the school. These past few months have been such a whirlwind and it’s totally understandable if you find yourself having a lot of mixed emotions about the return to school.
The Place2Be counselling program on West Johnstone Campus will be resuming shortly. Including our work with parents, one-to-one counselling, and our lunch time self-referral service called Place2Talk, which was hugely popular last year with students.
Last year signed permission slips were required for students to be able to use the Place2Talk service. This year we are moving to a negative consent. Meaning that if you want your child to have access to this service no signed permission slip is required, just do nothing. How simple is that!
If you DO NOT want your child to have access to this service please contact me or the school (via email, phone, or morning drop off), or print off the negative consent form below and we will remove your child from the approved list. You can change your consent at any time.
If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me or your head teacher. I am so excited to be working with your kids this upcoming academic year.
Attached at the bottom of this post is the negative consent form as well as a FAQ sheet about the Place2Talk program.
Click the link below and the file will download. If you have any trouble viewing the document please contact me, and I can send you a copy via email or home with your child.
Place2talk Negative Consent Letter and FAQS
-Melissa Dever, School Counsellor
Melissa.dever@place2be.org.uk
Welcome Back
It has been wonderful welcoming back lots of our pupils and families over the last few days and we look forward to welcoming our P5 and P6 children tomorrow.
We’d like to take this opportunity to thank you all for supporting us in ensuring that the school is a safe place for everyone by adhering to all the new guidance. It is essential that physical distancing must be in place and we must remind you that anyone dropping a child at school should keep 2m from other households and staff at all times.
Please remember our new drop off and pick up times to help us reduce the number of people in the playground and give the pupils space inside to start the day with hand washing.
The children have all been settling in well and enjoying being back at school. A reminder that children will be outside daily for break and lunchtimes as well as for an increased amount of their learning time. Please ensure that your child is dressed appropriately for the weather with sturdy shoes that will also suffice for P.E. (which will take place outside). Our relaxed uniform remains in place to accommodate this.
Just a reminder that packed lunches are available at no cost to all P1-P3 pupils. If you qualify, P4-7 pupils can apply for Free School Meals via the Renfrewshire Council website, Each day, pupils in receipt of lunch will have a choice of a Cheese, Ham or Tuna sandwich.
Please click on the link below to view a Welcome Back leaflet for parents and carers from Renfrewshire Council.
Welcome Back!
Please click on the image below for important information regarding the return of pupils from tomorrow, Wednesday 12th August 2020.
Happy Holidays
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
