"Co-location has not worked as well as we hoped"

Thursday 11 July 2019

Education, Sport and Culture is hoping to make the most of Le Murier's co-location with St Sampson under its new secondary school model.

Development of the Baubigny site that houses both schools was completed in 2008.

However, it has failed to achieve the benefits that were hoped for - something that the current Education Committee believes can be stimulated by their school reforms. 

"The objective of co-location was to encourage the schools to operate in closer partnership to the benefit of students at both," the Committee said. "In particular, some students at the special school would be able to access lessons and facilities within the high school and some students at the high school would receive additional support from specialist staff within the special school. A further benefit was providing students with more opportunities to mix socially.

The Baubigny Schools' motto is 'learning together', which has not been done sufficiently to date according to ESC.

"Although some students have benefited from co-location, the concept has not been developed as fully as was originally hoped. The Committee is supportive of the concept and potential of co-location and regards it as further justification for the selection of St Sampson’s as one of the two sites.

Although there will be more students on the site, Education said the intention is for all PE facilities to continue to be shared between the two schools.

"While the number of students on the site will increase," the Committee said, "this will result largely in an increase in the number of students doing PE at any one time rather than an increase in the number of periods per week when the facilities will be used."