Education changed its mind on analysis of two-school option
A U-TURN by the Education committee on which firm of architects should analyse the Grammar School site for use in a two-school model has been revealed by the deputies supporting that option.
Their report includes a timeline showing a series of events that is yet to be contested by the committee.
The timeline shows that the committee originally advised that different firms of architects would be commissioned to study each of the current secondary school sites and their suitability for extension as part of a two-school model.
Two weeks after an undisclosed 122-page report was submitted to ESC by a local firm, the committee changed its mind and commissioned one firm to study all four sites.
The firm selected was Design Engine, the UK firm appointed as the architects for the committee’s proposed redevelopment of La Mare de Carteret, and which had the contract for Les Beaucamps High School.
Design Engine’s advice on Les Varendes as a site for use in the alternative model was generally negative, concluding that the site ‘presents a number of challenges and risks, in particular the limited opportunity for extension options…on States-owned land.’
The study by the local firm in relation to the possibility of Les Varendes accommodating 1,310 students, said the project was ‘feasible…within the existing building plus an extension’ and that ‘there are a number of locations on the site where an extension could be located’.
Deputy Matt Fallaize, one of the authors of the 11-18 model, said this was one of the reasons they were unable to commit to which two schools should be used if their proposals are successful in overturning ESC’s.
Full story in today's Guernsey Press
