School changes will be driven by teachers

The board's number one priority remains raising standards across the education service. We will not sanction anything we believe will have a negative impact on education outcomes for our children and young people.

There are no plans to make any staff redundant. In fact, it was important that we shared our plans for the federation now as we are in the process of actively recruiting new staff for September and wanted to take this opportunity to appoint teachers who will be able to work across schools, where appropriate, and when in the best interests of our students.

This new collaborative approach, with our secondary schools working more closely together, will not happen overnight. We have always said there will be a measured and phased approach with some small changes from September, such as the introduction of the common timetable framework. This will unlock our ability to consider greater sharing of staff and resources as time goes on and this is exactly what the board has tasked head teachers to do. We have every confidence that by working together and involving senior management teams and staff in planning the detail of how collaboration will work, they will be successful; we will improve outcomes for learners, provide true equality of opportunity for all our students and deliver service efficiently and effectively.

It goes without saying that where changes to teachers' terms and conditions are required, they will be properly negotiated through the correct channels.

Teachers are not being excluded from the process. The board has established a framework for federation and it is now for the head teachers and staff to co-design and produce how it will work in practice. We expect teachers to be involved in this and actively encourage their input. We are also considering how we can reflect the views of our students as we work up the detail of the federation.

We know change can be unsettling but we also know we cannot stand still and do nothing. Embracing change means we can provide the highest quality learning opportunities and enable all our children to reach their full potential.

Finally, I would like to thank those members of staff, parents, political colleagues and members of the community who have contacted me, the other board members or the department to share their excitement about this new, federated approach. We know there will continue to be questions about the detail, which we will endeavour to answer as we further develop the federation.

I will leave the final words to one of our secondary head teachers, Mrs Vicky Godley, head teacher of La Mare de Carteret High School:

'I am looking forward to the wider opportunities the federation will present in order to provide more equality of opportunity across the island for our young people. It will, of course, take time to evolve and in every decision that is made, possible impact on our young people must be at the forefront of our minds. The prospect of greater staff collaboration is certainly welcome, and through an open dialogue with all parties, it should present us with an opportunity to build on best practice, which exists already in all of our schools.'

DEPUTY ROBERT SILLARS,

Minister,

Education Department.