Dargavel P1 information evening
Dear parent or carer
Thank you again to everyone who came along to the information evening last month for Dargavel residents whose children are starting Primary One in August 2024.
I hope you found the evening useful and, while we appreciate this is a difficult situation for parents and carers, we hope we were able to answer your questions.
We appreciate the honest feedback we were given and can I assure you we have noted all the issues raised. Our focus remains on delivering the best school experience possible for your children.
As promised, I wanted to follow up with a note covering some of the key issues raised on the night and our position on each. We haven’t covered every topic discussed on the night, but we have summarised below our position on the key points you raised.
Hopefully this will be useful for those who couldn’t be there on the night, and a handy reminder for those who were.
Transport and traffic
Our policy across Renfrewshire is free home-to-school transport is offered to those living more than one mile away from their primary school. Some strong views were expressed around how this should apply to Dargavel parents whose children will have to travel to Bishopton. We recognise you have been placed in unique circumstances.
We promised to take this issue away for further consideration and have been looking into whether it will be possible to expand bus travel to include parents living within one mile of Bishopton Primary.
To help us establish demand, we will send a separate survey link to those of you whose child starts P1 at Bishopton in August who we have identified as living within one mile of the school.
We also discussed the issue of safe walking routes to Bishopton Primary. We have asked our roads department colleagues to carry out a full assessment of this. If any areas are assessed as having no safe walking route, transport will be provided.
Capacity and impact on Bishopton Primary
Several questions were raised about whether there would be capacity at Bishopton Primary for the increased intake of new P1s from this summer. We can confirm there is plenty spare capacity at present. Bishopton Primary has capacity for 519 pupils. The current school roll is 367 and from the summer we expect it will be around 400.
We will have to continue to cap P1 entry to Dargavel Primary in 2025 and 2026, which means there will be further ballots for new P1s in those years. Our projections show there will be capacity between Dargavel and Bishopton for all catchment pupils until then. Should we need to add extra capacity, we have flexibility between both sites to do so.
There were questions raised over the impact of so many new P1 pupils on how Bishopton Primary will be run. We confirmed the funding for each school will increase in line with the pupil roll, and that Bishopton Primary will have enough teachers, classrooms and equipment.
Bishopton Primary is an excellent school – as confirmed by a very positive recent government inspection report – and we have every confidence the head teacher and team there will ensure a great school experience for all children.
We heard from a few parents who felt their child would need additional support. We ask you to contact your school – the senior staff there will be happy to meet you to discuss your child’s circumstances and put a plan in place to ensure these are met.
New school and catchment
As you know, we are proposing to build a new school within the Dargavel area. This would be for 800 pupils and is planned to be open by summer 2027. We have now started the formal consultation process around the proposed site for the new school, and to review the catchment areas for it and the existing Dargavel Primary.
This includes a series of events where the community can find out more and give your views. You can find out more and book your place at these events via our website:
There were a few questions on the night about what would happen once the proposed new school is open and we can reiterate our answers here. All children living within the catchment for the new school will have the option to take up a place there when it opens.
Those living in the catchment for the existing Dargavel Primary will have the same option, should places be available. But, once your child has started school at Bishopton or Dargavel Primary, they will have the right to remain there for their entire primary education, if you wish – this will be your choice.
If you have younger children and want them to attend the same school as their brother or sister, you will have to register them at their catchment primary school, and then submit a placing request for the school you want them to go to. If their elder siblings are already there, your request would be prioritised.
Admissions update
Lastly, there were a few questions over the ballot for P1 entry. We hope you appreciate we have to apply our admissions policy consistently across the whole area. We know this situation has not been easy on families and we are sorry for that, but hope now you know which school your child has a place at, you will be able to plan ahead with more certainty.
To make you aware, there are a small number of families whose children have places to start P1 at Dargavel Primary in the summer who have submitted placing requests to go elsewhere. We will be able to confirm the outcome of all placing requests across Renfrewshire at the end of March.
We know there are also some families still considering whether to defer their child’s entry to Primary 1 for a year. We appreciate this is an important decision and anyone in this situation can speak to their head teacher for advice on what is best for your child.
This means we do expect some places at Dargavel Primary to open up over the months ahead. These will be offered to families in line with the position you were drawn in the ballot. We will contact those families directly at that time.
I hope this information was useful and we will keep you informed as we move forward. If there is anything else you would like to talk to us about, you can reach the team at council HQ by emailing dargavelcs@renfrewshire.gov.uk.
You can of course contact your school directly if there is anything you want to talk to the team there about.
Kind regards
Janie O’Neill
Director of Children’s Services, Renfrewshire Council
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