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A number of strongly worded, emotive statements have been released by Herm residents hopeful that education bosses will change their minds about closing the small island school.
Shared in full on our OPINION page, the statements have been written by parents of current pupils, a past pupil and a parent of children who had expected to join the primary school next term.
Instead those children will join others from Herm in travelling to St Peter Port each school day to attend lessons at Vauvert Primary.
Pictured: You can read the views of some Herm residents in full HERE.
While some people may agree that the closure of Herm School - currently attended by just four pupils - is a sensible one, there has been opposition, not least from a vocal number of Herm residents.
The Committee for Education, Sport & Culture has said it is in the "best interests of the children’s education" and it will also save the States between £60,000 to £85,000 a year, but ESC said it is not about cutting costs.
Here we explore what is proposed, the opposition to those proposals, and examples of small schools elsewhere:
ESC announced the decision to close Herm School on a year-long trial basis in May.
It said the school will close at the end of this summer term and not reopen in September, with school age pupils living in Herm offered places at Vauvert Primary in St Peter Port instead. Herm pupils already attend Vauvert one day per week.
ESC said it held meetings with the parents of Herm children and the Herm Island management the day before the news was announced publicly, where staff explained the decision to shut the school in the "best interests of the children’s education".
ESC said the decision was made "so that they are afforded the same educational opportunities as their Guernsey peers, to support their social integration and help prepare them for the transition to secondary school".
Deputy Andrea Dudley-Owen, ESC President, said: "The best interests of the children are at the heart of every education-related decision the Committee makes and this is the key driver for this decision.
"Educating a range of year groups in one small class in Herm, means that we’re not delivering for the children against a core element of our Education Strategy, which is to ensure that our curriculum at all phases reflects the needs of all learners and is appropriately broad, diverse and ambitious.
"Educating children from Herm at Vauvert Primary School enables us to deliver against this element of the Strategy as it will allow them to be educated in line with their Guernsey-based peers, in age- and need-appropriate classes, with access to a wider curriculum than is currently available to them – through no fault of anyone but purely dealing with the reality of the very small number of children currently living on Herm."
Pictured: Deputy Andrea Dudley-Owen and Nick Hynes.
ESC said money wasn't the motivating factor, despite Deputy Dudley-Owen indicating that closing Herm School would save the States between £60,000 to £85,000 a year.
"We understand that this decision may not be welcomed by everyone in Herm, but we are focused on what is best for those children’s education and development, and on working with the children and their families to make this transition a success," she said.
The new arrangements - involving daily boat trips across the Little Russell for children between 4 and 11 years old - will be trialled over the next school year, but ESC said there won't be any deviation from that trial, with the arrangements all intended to 'inform the longer- term future delivery of education for Herm children'.
"...it’s clear that it is very challenging to teach extremely small groups of children of mixed ages within the primary phase, particularly when there are fewer than five children at different ages and different stages of development," said Nick Hynes, Director of Education.
"We are committed to working with parents, Herm’s management and staff at the school to ensure the transition to this new model of educating children living in Herm goes smoothly and they are supported to achieve the very best outcomes possible."
Pictured: Herm School's pupil numbers have fluctuated over the years - currently it has just four.
Express asked residents of Herm how they feel about the closure of the island's school. The comments shared represent one overwhelming viewpoint - that the decision is not welcomed by current pupils' parents, parents of children who would attend the school in future and a past pupil.
The statements shared with Express include the words "devastated", "shocked", "saddened", "sad", and "astonishing".
The comments also include phrases such as: "You only have to look at all the incredibly well-rounded, decent and successful young adults who have come through the school as testament to the beneficial academic and social effect that Herm School has had."
Emma Ellis moved to Herm when her children were five and four years old and she said the small island school was a motivating factor in her family's decision to live in Herm. She thinks the lack of a school will stop other families moving to the island.
"We have been fortunate to have five great years with them at the school here," she said, "I am devastated that the school is closing, especially for future families. It is the heart of the Herm community, I cannot see why a family would move here and what mother would consider putting a 4-year-old on a rough boat in winter on their own, dealing with seasickness and being distraught leaving their parent on Herm. I certainly would never have done this."
Anything which could deter families from living in Herm could have wider repercussions.
Herm - like elsewhere - struggles with recruitment and has previously encouraged family units to take up employment as they bring societal benefits too.
Pictured: Herm is often seeking new community members to take up jobs in the island.
Samantha Wall also has a child at Herm School - having taken her daughter out of a Guernsey school so she could attend lessons in Herm full time.
"It was a hard decision to make to move her but felt it was the right thing to do rather than commuting each day," she explained.
That daily commute is something all Herm children will be doing from September. Ms Wall also said the entirely positive reputation of Herm's teacher, Mary Carey, was a deciding factor for her.
"We’d heard great reports from parents about Herm School and the fantastic teacher, Mary. This made the decision a lot easier, with the added bonus of a small school size of just seven pupils in total at the time. With the news of the closure, for us personally it will be like going backwards again with the upheaval of daily commuting."
April-Rose Diaper has young children who were due to attend Herm School but now they'll either be doing the daily commute or be homeschooled. Ms Diaper said she is angry about how she found this out, and is worried about how it may work.
"As a parent of two young children on Herm Island, I find it astonishing that the States of Guernsey can make a decision, highly likely to jeopardize the foundations of my children's future, without even having the decency to reach out and communicate with us beforehand.
"Myself and my husband as well as other parents of young children on Herm, had to find out via a heartless SOG Facebook post; callous acts like this do not provide any reassurance or instil confidence that SOG are making decisions based on the children's needs and I have little faith they care at all about our children's education. The States of Guernsey have treated our children as irrelevant statistics that they can sacrifice in an attempt to pinch pennies, and it's insulting."
Ms Diaper has read up on Guernsey's education law and has concerns about the daily commute, and how the requirement to educate children will be looked upon if their education is disrupted by the weather.
Pictured: Sections of Guernsey's current Education Law highlighted by Herm parent, April-Rose Diaper.
"We moved here for a better life and to build our family, how are we or any family able to do that without access to basic necessities?" asked Ms Diaper.
"What parent would want to live under the constant threat and pressure of potentially being prosecuted for an offence that is completely unavoidable? And even if once charged parents can prove, as per The Education of (Guernsey) Law 1970 that they haven't committed an offence, then what? Are our children just not afforded an education? Are States of Guernsey going to provide boarding, and how would that work with 5-year-olds? The option to offer a school nearer to home has been taken away already, so what then? I honestly don't think SOG have truly thought about this prior to making this knee jerk decision. It is utter idiocy."
The views of those Herm residents who wish for the island's school to remain open are highly emotive, but one area in which everyone agrees is that the sole teacher at Herm School over the past 18 years has been exemplary.
In announcing the decision to close the school on a one-year trial basis, Mr Hynes said:
"I want to take this opportunity to express my thanks to Mary Carey, who has dedicated almost two decades to teaching children who live in Herm and has done a remarkable job in that time. We have discussed this decision at length with Mary and it’s clear that it is very challenging to teach extremely small groups of children of mixed ages within the primary phase, particularly when there are fewer than five children at different ages and different stages of development."
Past-pupil Morgan Jones also praised Ms Carey - echoing the views of other past pupils.
"The education Mrs Carey gives is second to none and there is no better primary school teacher out there. I will forever treasure the memories I have of Herm school, and I am sorry for the current and future children of herm that may not get to experience this. I mean, how many people at the age of 22 still speak so highly of their primary school education - this should speak volumes to the States."
Looking for examples of other similarly small schools Express found that a Scottish school had just four pupils in 2020 and rather than it facing closure, a new headteacher was appointed.
Tim Ross - who had previously taught in the Falkland Islands - took on the role of leading Papa Westray Community School in Orkney. He was to be their only teacher.
By comparison - the Falklands - with a population of below 4,000 - has a single infant and junior School (with around 330 pupils in 2021) and secondary school (with around 210 pupils in 2021).
Other Scottish schools have small pupil numbers too - with Foula Primary School in the Shetland Isles having four pupils, and Shapinsay Primary in Orkney, having 17 pupils.
One school even had 0 pupils in May last year with the local authority considering whether to close it.
Pictured: Fetlar Primary School had no pupils in May 2022.
Fetlar Primary School, which came under the Shetland Islands Council’s education and families committee, faced closure when pupil numbers flatlined and there were no prospective pupils coming of school age. In July last year it was decided to 'mothball' the school in anticipation of it being needed in the near future.
Elsewhere in the UK, in 2018 Milburn School in Cumbria, England, had six pupils and one teacher.
Further afield, in 2019, a school in Turin, Italy, was said to have just one pupil - with one teacher.
A school in Michigan, USA, was said to have four pupils enrolled in 2021/22. Bois Blanc Pines School District said this was the smallest district in the state in terms of enrolment and was among the smallest in the nation (Wikipedia).
Closer to home, Sark School is believed to have fewer than 30 pupils between the ages of 3 and 13, while St Anne's in Alderney is thought to have fewer than 80 pupils at both primary and secondary school level.
A spokesperson said to refer to the statement published on 23 May. That can be read in full HERE.
Herm parents shocked at school closure news
OPINION: The impact on Herm is "hugely worrying"
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