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Teacher-turned-deputy had already cleared his desk

The highest-polling new candidate at the general election has described his forthcoming entry into the States as an ‘opportune moment’ as he prepares to bid farewell to a 30-year local teaching career.

 Paul Montague yesterday thanked some of his sixth form pupils for helping him to cut through with new technology.
Paul Montague yesterday thanked some of his sixth form pupils for helping him to cut through with new technology. / Guernsey Press/Peter Frankland

Paul Montague, who has spent his entire stint in local education at the site presently housing Les Varendes High School and the Sixth Form Centre, earned 8,884 votes to place fifth in the polls. He was the top newcomer, and for the first 12 hours led the Guernsey Press exit poll.

Mr Montague accepted the support he had garnered would bring with it a lot of responsibility.

But he said the prospect of becoming a deputy was ‘quite exciting’.

‘When you’ve got the electorate saying they want new people coming in, if you’re one of those people you don’t want to let them down.

‘It’s going to be a big change from what I’ve been doing day-to-day, so quite daunting, but quite exciting.’

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In light of the changes which have taken place at the Les Varendes site in recent years, and with the sixth form moving to La Mare De Carteret in September, Mr Montague said it was an ideal moment to move into something new.

‘What’s fortuitous is I’ve had to pack up everything anyway as part of the decant to La Mare, so that’s worked out quite well for me in a way.’

His final day of teaching will be next Friday, and it will be a difficult farewell to a school building with which he has shared such a long association.

‘When the job came up at the Grammar School and Sixth Form Centre in 1995 I had no idea that 30 years later I’d still be in the same building. And funnily enough, I outlasted the school.’

He credited some sixth form students for his electoral success, with the youngsters helping promote his campaign via social media.

‘They helped me with a couple of TikToks. As a teacher you don’t put yourself out there too much.’

In addition to his teaching role, Mr Montague will end his decades-long association with the National Education Union, during which time he has chaired negotiating committees for teachers and lecturers among other roles.

Looking ahead to his upcoming political career, he was reluctant to say the exact role he envisioned himself playing in the new States, despite having a strong public mandate.

He said his ‘natural home’ would be on the Education, Sport & Culture Committee, but not as president.

‘With ESC, I will have to wait and see who’s president.’

‘I was expecting [incumbent ESC president] Andrea Dudley-Owen to be re-elected, there was a slight expectation that she would be the continuity candidate.

‘Now that’s not going to happen, I suppose one has to think about who will get that role.’

He labelled his fellow newly-elected candidates as an ‘incredibly competent and collegiate group’ and was confident they would be able to work well together.

‘There’s some really, really interesting people there, some people with a real breadth of experience,’ he said.

‘We’ll see how the [committee] positions are filled but there are a number of other areas in the States that I think I could potentially add value to, Health & Social Care is another area.’

‘There are lots and lots of opportunities out there, so we’ll just have to see how things pan out over the next few weeks.’

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