Education asked to bring forward primary review as pupil numbers fall

And the Education, Sport & Culture Committee is now striking a more decisive tone than it was 12 months ago about the need to re-examine the number and location of primary schools.

Early in this political term, ESC won the States’ backing to defer a review of primary schools – and the linked redevelopment of La Mare de Carteret Primary – which was originally scheduled to start within weeks of the last general election.

No new timetable was set for carrying out the review and this time last year ESC president Andrea Dudley-Owen said it would ‘not begin until the next States term at the earliest’.

At that time, the Guernsey Press had just reported a fall in the number of children starting reception from 490 in 2022 to 469 in 2023.

Late last month it was revealed that only 437 children would start reception in 2024 – a decline of 11% in just two years, with no end to the lower numbers projected in the years ahead.

In total, there will be 19.5 reception classes from September, down from 20 in the current academic year and 23 last year. At the end of the 1990s, there were 26 reception classes – a third more than now.

From September, nearly half of the States’ 11 primary schools in Guernsey will have fewer than two reception classes, and only two schools will have three classes when a few years ago several more schools regularly had three forms of entry. At one time, in the larger primary schools, it was not unknown to have four classes in a year group.

ESC now believes its successor committee, which will be elected in July next year, will have little choice but to put a primary review near the top of its agenda.

‘Regarding the needed review of primary education, we are keen to see this progressed, while noting that the States did not prioritise it for this political term when considering the Government Work Plan,’ said Deputy Dudley-Owen last week.

‘I am sure it will be a priority for the next committee.’

ESC’s apparent change of tone was welcomed by sceptics of small schools, such as Jonathan Le Tocq.

‘In small schools, the ability to set effectively for key subjects is thwarted, as well as the ability to manage social issues such as bullying.

‘The quality of educational offer diminishes and competition and team games are also limited,’ said Deputy Le Tocq.

The committee’s supporters maintain it would have been impracticable to carry out a review this term, and that it was right to focus on fewer more pressing issues than dabble in an endless list.

Some of the committee’s critics claim it was merely weakness which led it to kick a review into the long grass and avoid the inevitability of sponsoring another round of unpopular school mergers or closures.

Having accepted the need for a primary review sooner rather than later, Peter Roffey called on ESC to get the work under way this side of next June’s general election.

‘The latest figures on the number of reception classes show an ongoing and unsurprising trend,’ said Deputy Roffey.

‘They also strongly reinforce the argument for the long overdue review of primary provision to be carried out at the earliest possible opportunity.

‘Both because we don’t have any spare taxpayers’ cash to run an inefficient system and in order to address the issue of excessive pressure on some schools, particularly those serving Town.’

From September, there will be 109 reception children at Amherst and Vauvert, and 42 at Forest and La Houguette.

The largest reception class, at Hautes Capelles, will contain nearly twice as many children as the smallest class, at Forest.

Deputy Roffey said the number and location of primary schools could not continue ‘as if nothing has changed’.

‘I am certainly not going to jump to any premature conclusions over what changes should be made to primary school provision, but what is crystal clear is that a review is long overdue,’ he said.

‘I really hope that it is now carried out without delay and that ESC does not wait until the next political term.’