St Sampson's High 'not big enough to take 900 pupils'

The committee has detailed two options for reforming secondary and post-16 education, arguing its favoured choice, which includes rebuilding La Mare, will come in at £108m. compared to £122m. for an alternative that does not have a new high school.

Of that £122m., a total of £12.1m has been included for extending St Sampson's High to accommodate 960 pupils, while another £56.4m. is for rebuilding Les Ozouets which the committee argues could not just be refurbished.

In 2011, in response to Guernsey Press questions about St Sampson's being over capacity with 768 pupils, the department argued that the size of the classrooms allowed for a maximum of 30 pupils, so the school could accommodate 900.

Now an Education, Sport & Culture spokesman said: 'St Sampson's High School has been designed as a six-form entry secondary school for up to 720 pupils with an average class size of 24.

'Many of the classrooms are able to take up to 30 pupils, which provides flexibility for the school to organise students in larger groups where required or where beneficial.

'This does not mean that the current school is able to take 30 students in every class across all year groups.

'The facilities such as toilets, corridors, lockers, assembly hall, dining hall, staff facilities are not designed to cater for this many pupils.

'It is true to say that for one year during the transition from the old St Sampson's Secondary School into the new school, and following the closure of St Peter Port School, that the school had 768 pupils in total.

'Additional staffing was provided for this year to cope with the transition. However, it was acknowledged at the time that this was extremely challenging in terms of the availability of social spaces, dining facilities for lunchtime provision etc in the St Sampson's High building.'

Option 1

Education's preference. Three 11-16 schools, a 6th Form & CoFE at Les Varendes plus CoFE tech (workshops), hair & beauty etc at Les Ozouets

LMDC Primary – £7.8m

LMDC High – £21.9m.

LMDC sports hall – £5.5m.

LMDC enlarged sports hall – £1m.

LMDC external areas, sports & ground works – £11.5m.

LMDC fees, surveys, project costs, FFE&ICT, design pricing contract risk (8%), VE risk – £16.8m.

St Sampsons High – £0

Les Beaucamps High – £3.5m.

Grammar School (post-16 college) – £24.5m.

CFE Les Ozouets (training college) – £15m.

Temporary accommodation - £0m.

Total – £108m.

Option 2

Three schools, two catering for 11-16, one for 11-19 including sixth form at Les Varendes plus CoFE at Les Ozouets.

LMDC Primary – £7.8m

LMDC High – £0

LMDC sports hall – £0

LMDC enlarged sports hall – £0m.

LMDC xxternal areas, sports & ground works - £5.5m.

LMDC fees, surveys, project costs, FFE&ICT, design pricing contract risk (8%), VE risk – £6.95m.

St Sampsons High – £12.1m.

Les Beaucamps High – £3.5m.

Grammar School (secondary school plus sixth form) – £28m.

CFE Les Ozouets (training college) – £56.4m.

Temporary accommodation – £2m.

Total – £122.3m.