‘I have little confidence of success in plans to extend Les Beaucamps’

St Andrew’s douzenier Chris Elliott was asked by the parish constables to write a report of a committee meeting that he attended.

The constables had such concerns that they decided to share the report with other parishes.

Mr Elliott said he thought the current school was well run with sympathetic and enthusiastic staff, but he feared for what the future might bring.

‘I would not wish my grandchildren to be part of this experiment and have concern for the children of St Andrew’s parish attending there during the transition period,’ he wrote.

The merging of pupils from other schools would present huge strains on teaching staff at the same time as the new facilities were being built to accommodate them.

The whole process, he said, was too rushed and children’s education would be hindered, despite the best efforts of teachers and support staff.

Mr Elliott asked how such a school could be planned without the full engagement of those who will be teaching children and those who will have to manage it in the future.

‘Will it be designed and built correctly at an acceptable cost?’ he said.

There were numerous outstanding issues with the current building, he said, a large number related to water ingress and leakages.

There remained defects in the sports hall cavity wall, and water ingress at some electrical circuits had rendered some areas unusable.

‘How can Education even consider building a new complex building without resolving the facilities issues that still exists at Les Beaucamps?’ said Mr Elliott.

His report was sent to all States members, of which only two – Education president Matt Fallaize and Deputy Heidi Soulsby – responded.

Deputy Fallaize said his committee did not consider the transformation of education to be an experiment. A transformation of this scale was bound to cause concern and his committee would work to keep disruption to a minimum.

The committee was aware of latent defects at Les Beaucamps. These were being dealt with and were a completely separate issue to the new build.

There was no reason to delay the planned extensions as they were completely separate buildings.

When Les Beaucamps High School was offered for approval of completion in September 2012 [sports building February 2014] none of the current defects was known to the contractor, project team, or the then Education department.

As with any project of that size there were a number of snags which the contractor addressed over a period of time.

Deputy Fallaize said his committee had engaged with teachers during the process and would continue to do so.