La Mare could be sixth form centre for longer
A TEMPORARY sixth form centre at La Mare de Carteret could be in place for twice as long as planned without spending more on the school’s facilities.
Education, Sport & Culture intends to move A-level students and their teachers from Les Varendes to La Mare for one academic year from September 2025. It has set aside £141,000 to fund changes needed to the building.
But they may have to remain at La Mare for longer than a year if there is further delay to a new permanent sixth form centre which ESC hopes to build at Les Ozouets.
The committee currently has no building contractor and is awaiting confirmation of funding from the States.
It is understood that the committee has received mixed advice from the construction industry about whether its new sixth form centre at Les Ozouets is likely to be finished in 2025 or 2026.
‘Whether there would be additional capital costs for a second year [at La Mare] has not been subject to external assessment, but we’re not aware of any increase in the capital investment required,’ senior ESC official Ed Gowan told a Scrutiny public hearing.
‘Clearly, the more years you run La Mare, the more years’ worth of revenue cost you have from running that site, but if you are talking about one year or two I don’t believe you would be looking at material capital investment.’
Questioned by the Scrutiny panel about the suitability of using La Mare, director of education Nick Hynes said he was confident that for 'a small financial investment' the committee could ensure that all the facilities required to deliver A-level provision can be made at La Mare, including changes to science laboratories.
Funding for the committee’s entire reorganisation of secondary and further education and digital improvements – which now has an estimated maximum cost of £140m. – faces more votes in the States this autumn, which adds further uncertainty to the length of the sixth form’s temporary period at La Mare.
At the Scrutiny hearing, ESC warned against keeping it there for longer than the period of one to two years it has publicly discussed.
‘The external consultants we mentioned earlier did mention that La Mare was not fit for purpose for the medium or long term,’ said ESC vice-president Sam Haskins.
Mr Gowan said La Mare, which will be vacated as a secondary school in the summer of 2025, was ‘reaching the end of its useful life’.
‘Put really simply, if there is a decision by the States not to invest at this point in time in our education estate, we will be facing a bigger remedial bill down the line, probably having spent nugatory expenditure to keep inappropriate facilities going in the meantime,’ he said.
Asked by the Scrutiny panel whether her committee should be making contingency plans, ESC president Andrea Dudley-Owen said that would be ‘presumptuous’ and ‘not a good use of public funds’.
