Demolition starts at former St Peter Port School site
The classrooms of the former St Peter Port Secondary School have begun to disappear under a cloud of dust, with the hope that a new Guernsey Institute will rise from the rubble and start welcoming students at the start of 2027.
‘The demolition is a very visual and physical sign of us taking the next step, it is very, very exciting to see, and has been a long time coming,’ said Jacki Hughes, the executive principal of the Institute, and one of a number of the leadership team who had gathered today to watch the heavy machinery move in.
‘We are aiming for a campus to reflect the 21st century and give our students and the island the skills they need.’
But there is no contractor yet appointed for its rebuild.
The site, a school from 1968, became part of the College of Further Education in 2009, but was vacated two years ago.
The Guernsey Institute, created in 2019 and made up of the Guernsey College of Further Education, the Institute of Health & Social Care Studies and the GTA University Centre, which are currently spread over five sites, will move into the new purpose-built building.
‘The Delancey and Coutanchez sites in particular are very outdated and tight for space,’ she said. ‘Although they are safe and dry after being damaged during Storm Ciaran, it highlighted the need for us to move.’
The new Les Ozouets campus has a construction budget of just less than £80m.
This includes £76m. to construct the Guernsey Institute and an additional £1m. to put in foundations for a potential sixth-form centre.
Ash Dupre, head of education capital projects, said the demolition phase should be completed by the end of August.
‘We should be announcing a main contractor for phase one of the building work within the month,’ he said.
‘We would then start the build in the first quarter of 2025 with some students being able to move into buildings by the start of 2027.’
He said that great care was being taken to re-use as much of the old buildings as possible.
‘All the concrete floors and structure will be used for levelling and as building material,’ he said.
‘All the furniture has been moved to other sites and a lot of other assets such as doors, fire alarms and kitchen equipment have found homes at other education sites.
'We have also gone to great lengths to safeguard the sweet chestnut tree which is iconic to the site – with even some redesigns to the original plans to make sure it was protected.’
