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