St David's Roman Catholic High School is a

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

secondary

state school A state school, public school, or government school is a primary school, primary or secondary school that educates all students without charge. They are funded in whole or in part by taxation and operated by the government of the state. State-f ...

located at Cousland Road in Dalkeith,

Midlothian Midlothian (; ) is registration county, lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area and one of 32 council areas of Scotland used for local government. Midlothian lies in the east-central Lowlands, bordering the City of Edinburgh council ar ...

, Scotland. It has shared the same campus with Dalkeith High School since 2003.

Pupils

The school had a roll of almost 800 pupils in 2012. 75% of St David's pupils come from associated Catholic primary schools in Midlothian and

East Lothian East Lothian (; ; ) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, as well as a Counties of Scotland, historic county, registration county and Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area. The county was called Haddingtonshire until 1921. In ...

History

A Roman Catholic School was founded in Dalkeith in 1854, following the establishment of St David's Church by the Marchioness of Lothian earlier that year."Church History"
. ''St David's, Dalkeith''. Retrieved 21 October 2024. In 1876, the

Sisters of Mercy The Sisters of Mercy is a religious institute for women in the Catholic Church. It was founded in 1831 in Dublin, Ireland, by Catherine McAuley. In 2019, the institute had about 6,200 Religious sister, sisters worldwide, organized into a number ...

came from St Catharine's Convent in Edinburgh to take over teaching responsibilities at the school, an arrangement that continued until around 1940. By 1880, the school had grown to accommodate some 135 pupils, with space for 100 more. The primary and secondary divisions of the school were separated in 1948, and St David's Junior Secondary School was opened that year in a building behind the church on Eskbank Road. This site, which did not have electricity, was closed in 1959, and the school was re-established as a six-year comprehensive secondary school in 1960, housed in locations at Croft Street and at Ironmills. In August 1966, the school moved to Abbey Road in what were originally the grounds of Newbattle Abbey, accommodated in several new buildings that were formally opened by the Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, Gordon Gray. In November 2003, St David's was integrated into the Dalkeith Schools Community Campus along with Dalkeith High and Saltersgate School, a

special education Special education (also known as special-needs education, aided education, alternative provision, exceptional student education, special ed., SDC, and SPED) is the practice of educating students in a way that accommodates their individual di ...

facility, making it the first such joint secondary school campus in Scotland. After the move, teachers kept students separated from each other in the dining hall and on the playground, citing concern that younger pupils might become disoriented by the sudden transformation of their small school into a large, integrated organisation with 2,200 youths. They initially predicted that the regime of segregation could be relaxed within a few weeks, and that religious factors played no role in their decision; by January 2004, teachers at Dalkeith and St. David's still told their pupils not to talk to pupils from the other school, and students were kept segregated due to threats of violence directed at one another and teachers of different religious backgrounds in addition to assaults.

School of Football

St David's High School are currently in their second year of delivering the School of Football program and are intending to introduce a new S1 group each year for the foreseeable future.

Notable former students

* Kevin Milne (b. 1981) - footballer *

Darren Fletcher Darren Barr Fletcher (born 1 February 1984) is a Scottish football coach and former professional player who is currently serving as a first-team coach at Manchester United, where he spent the majority of his playing career and won 13 trophies i ...

(b. 1984) - footballer,

Manchester United F.C. Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd) or simply United, is a professional football club based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England. They compete in the Premier League, t ...

, Scotland national team; was inducted into Midlothian Council's Hall of Fame in 2009. * Keith Jack (b. 1988) - actor and singer.

References

External links