Parents of students at the Sixth Form Centre, and those planning to start there this year, received a letter yesterday aimed at reassuring them about preparations ahead of the move from Les Varendes this summer.
‘This letter is an opportunity also to reassure you that we are already fully staffed with teachers for the next academic year,’ said Liz Coffey, executive principal of the States’ secondary schools.
‘All of them are qualified specialists with expertise in their subject areas. As a team, they have significant sixth form teaching experience.’
There has been widespread criticism of plans to move Education officials and other staff into the Sixth Form Centre buildings at Les Varendes once the students and teachers have moved to La Mare.
Mrs Coffey explained in yesterday’s letter that the centre was not being moved to create office space but was instead necessitated by lack of teaching space at Les Varendes once it receives more students from La Mare to complete the merger of those two 11-16 high schools in September.
The Education Committee wanted to construct a new Sixth Form Centre at Les Ozouets, as part of a single post-16 campus also featuring The Guernsey Institute, but it was forced into a rethink when it split with its main contractor for the project and the States then withdrew capital funding.
It still hopes to move sixth form studies to Les Ozouets by 2029 and committee president Deputy Andrea Dudley-Owen said recently that she hoped the next States would get that plan back on track soon after next month’s general election.
Mrs Coffey said that in the meantime parents and students could be assured of a ‘very bright’ future at the Sixth Form Centre.
‘The strength of the team probably speaks most clearly through our students’ outcomes and destinations,’ she said.
‘For example, this year’s Year 13 leavers have already secured Oxbridge offers, the Brock University undergraduate scholarship, offers to read medicine and medically-related subjects, and employment in leading organisations and industries on the island.
‘We all look forward to seeing what exciting outcomes our future students – hopefully your children – achieve.’
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