La Mare Primary rebuild ‘as vital as rest of ESC’s plans’

Its president, Matt Fallaize, said his was the third successive committee which had concluded that primary education should continue at La Mare de Carteret and therefore a replacement school should be built there.

‘The longer a rebuild of La Mare de Carteret Primary School is put off, the greater the level of disadvantage experienced by the children and staff,’ he said.

‘La Mare de Carteret Primary educates some of the most disadvantaged children in Guernsey and the committee cannot accept adding further disadvantage by continuing to provide them with wholly inadequate school buildings,’ said Deputy Fallaize.

‘The redevelopment of the school should proceed as expeditiously as possible.

‘It therefore makes sense for this development to form part of the Education Transformation Programme that ESC will ask the States to provide funding for in September.’

The condition of the current school, which was opened in 1975, is inadequate and it has exceeded its original intended lifespan.

In the summer of 2018 the committee spent around £200,000 improving its condition, which gave it a limited but much-needed facelift.

Since the building continues to deteriorate, each facelift is likely to be less successful than the last.

A new purpose-built school will be less expensive to operate as a result of avoiding maintenance and minor capital costs associated with the ageing and inadequate existing school building.

Across the island, the need for primary school places is not well-matched geographically to the supply of places, leading to significant variation in average class size between schools.

Given these factors, there is a need for a review of primary provision across the island, but under all possible models a school at La Mare de Carteret is required. The current school has two forms of entry each year.

Depending on the outcome of the review of primary school provision, the redeveloped school may require either two or three forms of entry.

‘La Mare de Carteret Primary School is in an area of relatively high population density and is a short walking distance from an area of social housing, which is predominantly occupied by families with young children,’ Deputy Fallaize said.

‘The proximity of many families to the school has been an important factor in enabling improvements in engagement with parents and carers in recent years, which has been a significant factor in the substantial improvement of the school seen under head teacher Kim Hutchison.

‘La Mare de Carteret Primary School incorporates “The Pod”, which caters for children under the age of nine who find mainstream school challenging due to emotional or mental health difficulties, and this has demonstrated significant success to date despite wholly inadequate buildings. Continuation of this provision is proposed in the new model.’

Rebuilding La Mare de Carteret Primary will cost between £13.3m. and £22.4m., depending on whether it is a two-form or three-form entry school and whether a swimming pool is included.

This is included in the total £157m. spend proposed by Education, Sport & Culture, which also includes up to £69m. for extensions to the two secondary sites selected for the new colleges and up to £47.5m. for a purpose-built building for The Guernsey Institute.