Guernsey Press

ESC's three-school bone with a twist

IT WILL come as a surprise to no-one that Education has backed a three-school approach for the new secondary system.

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Everything has been moving in that direction since the pause and review move led by its now president last term.

What will open eyes is the fact that using La Mare as one of the sites for the 11 to 16 schools remains on the table, and what will open them even wider is creating a sixth form centre at Les Ozouets, operationally separate to but on the same site as The Guernsey Institute.

Education wants all post-16 learning on the same land to create an ‘adult learning environment’ and hopes it will mean all the different qualifications on offer are seen as equally valid.

There are familiar undertones in the ultimately doomed efforts by the committee two iterations ago to create a sixth form college offering all full-time qualifications at Les Varendes.

It too wanted to use St Sampsons, Les Beaucamps and La Mare for 11 to 16.

There are many questions still to answer.

We know nothing of the school sizes, classroom sizes, what kind of facilities will be built, including sporting or special education provisions. How much ‘equity’, so beloved of its predecessors, will remain?

How will they manage teachers working across the sites, and what has happened to the idea of federation?

We are blind to the costs, but given the references to it being ‘reflective of the current financial climate’ some will fear a whiff of a budget solution.

Education’s attitude to developing its plans has very much been about control, about putting its own stamp on the proposals.

It has given those keen to know more a welcome bone, but little more than that in today’s announcement.

The real debate will come once everyone can see exactly what is on offer, and there are reasons to believe it will not meet the expectations of some that have been raised so high by how things have unfolded.